Are You Lucy Fabray?
by loudmouthgeek
Summary: AU: Lucy moves to Lima with her mom after her parents' divorce. At school she meets back up with a girl she once knew as a young girl. Contains Faberry, Fierce, Brittana, Pucktana, Finchel, maybe more, who knows. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: I honestly don't know what this is. I started writing it when I couldn't get words to come on "Keeping the Creed". At first I just thought I'd make a little Rucy one shot and now it's just grown and grown. I don't know why she's Lucy here and not Quinn, except that she's very different than the Quinn we all know from the show.**

**On a side note: Today, May 19****th**** is the six year anniversary of Spring Awakening opening on Broadway, the three year anniversary of Glee debuting on Fox, and it's the one year anniversary of my writing fanfiction. Trippy huh?**

**Chapter One**

Lucy slammed the front door and took off up the stairs as her parents called out behind her. She didn't slow down, wait, or listen. Instead she just raced to her room slamming that door as well, before collapsing onto the bed in body racking sobs. She clamped her eyelids shut in the futile hopes that she could make the tears stop. She listened to the slow deliberate sounds of someone, her father, climbing the stairs. She wanted desperately to get herself composed before she was faced with him. She knew that he would see her blubbering as yet another sign of her weakness, of her being a disappointment, and she really didn't want to disappoint her father.

He knocked but didn't wait for a reply before opening the door. "Lucy Fabray," he said sternly, "You know I don't like slamming doors in my house, young lady."

"I…I'm sorry, Daddy," she managed to choke out.

"I accept your apology," he said, "Don't let it happen again." He moved to sit down on the edge of her bed. "Now, sit up. Tell me what's got my little princess so upset." Lucy did as her father told her to. She always did. She sat up and turned herself so that she was sitting next to her father so that he could slide his arm across her shoulders and pull her against him. It always made her feel safe and warm to be held like this by her father. Lucy had stopped crying and even had a bit of a smile starting but she still kept her head down. She couldn't look at him without him knowing what was going on. "Lucy, look at Daddy."

She took a deep breath because she knew she could never disobey him when he told her to do something. Slowly and barely holding onto her calm, she looked up at him, and there for him to see was the brand new pair of black eyes that she was sporting. "Who did this to you?"

"M-Michelle Slattery," Lucy said softly, "her and Regina Dorset, they were… being mean, and I just got so tired of always being picked on so I said something mean back. Then Michelle hit me."

"How many times did she hit you, once?" Lucy nodded in answer to his question. "Was your nose bleeding?"

"A little," she said, "Earlier."

"Okay, honey, we need to take you to the doctor," he said, "Your nose may be broken."

"O-okay, Daddy."

"And when we get home, we'll look into taking you to some self-defense classes," he said, "I can't stop people from saying mean things, honey, but I won't stand for people hitting my little princess. Do you understand me? We're Fabray's right? No one makes us victims."

"Right," Lucy agreed with a small smile clearly betraying the pain she was still in. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and she smiled even bigger. She loved her father more than anything and the fact that he was standing up for her and not making her feel like she let him down meant the world to her.

That's why when they went to the doctor to have him look at her nose and she found out it _was_ broken, she didn't beg her father to let the doctor change it like she'd been wanting to, because it was her father's nose. That's why when he signed her up for kickboxing lessons at the YMCA, she threw herself into it with such dedication that she really impressed her instructors and they moved her quickly up to the advanced class. And that's why two years later, right at the end of Lucy's freshman year, when her mother caught her father cheating on her, Lucy's world was destroyed.

Suddenly, just in time for Lucy's sophomore year, Lucy and Judy were moving back to Lima, where they had lived when she was little to stay with her Aunt Caroline and Uncle Derek until the divorce could be sorted out.

She'd had a lot of really directionless anger after she'd found out about the affair and she'd expressed it by changing nearly everything about herself over the course of the summer. She cut her hair off short and dyed chunks of it fire engine red. All of her baby doll dresses went up in a huge bonfire in the backyard. She replaced them with a variety of clothes from vintage shops, yard sales, and consignment shops. She replaced her demure, girly wire-rimmed glasses with a pair of thick framed ones. She got her ears pierced again as well as one nostril. Unbeknownst to her mother, she also got a tattoo on the inside of her left leg, just above her ankle that read, "Just Keep Chasing the Storm". She spent most of the summer teaching herself how to play the guitar by watching videos on YouTube. People called her a hipster but she really didn't care what anyone thought anymore.

**X X X X X**

By the second day of school at William McKinley High, she was still struggling to figure the place out. She'd learned quickly that the cheerleaders were pretty much all bitches (other than her friend Brittany that she knew from dance class) but they were the top of the food chain. The football team was somewhere up there too, although that was confusing since from what she understood, they were more or less the worst team in the state.

She was at her locker dropping off books from the morning's classes before heading off to find somewhere to spend her lunch period because she was absolutely certain that she had no interest in ever going back to the cafeteria, too much clique-y bullshit for one lifetime and nothing worth eating.

Someone behind her cleared their throat. Lucy immediately rolled her eyes preparing for someone else to make some sort of comment about the way she's dressed or try to tell her what her place was. "Excuse me," said a soft, pretty voice, "are-are you Lucy Fabray?"

It was the first time she hadn't been addressed as "New Girl" so far so that was a plus, also it was her actual last name instead of Lucy Caboosey, the nickname that had plagued her existence at her old school, which at first had been to torment her about her weight and then after she'd gotten into shape in kickboxing class and dancing, it was used by crass, asshole boys to drool over her shapely posterior. Lucy turned around to come face to face with an absolutely stunning brunette with big, beautiful, expressive brown eyes and plump kissable lips. Kissing this girl without even saying hello first would probably come off as presumptuous and also rude, so she opted not to do that.

Lucy's friend Brittany had kissed her one night when they were hanging out last summer after one of their dance classes and Lucy knew immediately that she'd liked kissing girls so much more than any of the boys she'd let get that far… which admittedly was only two, but neither of them even came close to making her feel like Brittany had that night. If Lucy wasn't 100% certain of her homosexuality after the hour or so she spent making out with Brittany, she was pretty sure the way she was staring at this petite girl in the sinfully short skirt would be enough to convince her. "Can I help you?" Lucy said.

"Oh my God," the girl said, "It is you. I remember your eyes. I'd recognize you anywhere."

Lucy's brow knitted in confusion, "Do I know you?"

"I'm-I'm Rachel Berry," she introduced herself, "We went to kindergarten together before you moved. We were… kind of friends back then."

Lucy's mind was suddenly flooded with memories of a tiny chatterbox of girl wearing Mary Janes and knee socks, sweaters and skirts, usually with stars on them somewhere (which apparently hadn't really changed much) going on at length about someone named Barbra who Lucy had thought at the time was the girl's imaginary friend, but in retrospect she realized that she was talking about Barbra Streisand, and really what five year old knows that much about her? Back in the present, Lucy said, "The… the star girl?"

An enormous smile quickly spread across Rachel's face, "You remember!"

"Not until just now," Lucy said.

"That's okay," Rachel said, "I didn't really remember you either until someone said your name this morning, but…" She trailed off as she looked Lucy up and down. "Lucy, you look amazing. I guess you outgrew your baby fat. I remember you were always bothered about your weight."

"How on _Earth_ do you remember that?" Lucy asked incredulously.

"I've always had a really good memory," Rachel replied, "Now that I've thought about our friendship all those years ago, it's all coming back to me now."

"Well, thank you," Lucy said, "although, no, I didn't really outgrow it and puberty just made it worse. What you're looking at here is the results of a lot of hard work."

"Wow, really? Congratulations," Rachel said.

A brief, awkward silence followed, until they both went to speak at the same time, "So, I…"

"Go ahead," Rachel said immediately.

"No, I don't even know what I was really going to say," Lucy said, "What were you saying?"

"I was just going to invite you to have lunch with me if you like," Rachel replied, "I mean you certainly don't have to. I just thought we might catch up on the last nine plus years."

"Somewhere other than the cafeteria?"

"I usually eat in the auditorium," Rachel said, "No one ever uses it. McKinley hasn't had a drama club in several years. The show choir is in disarray at the moment so it's empty most days... and apart from my rehearsals, it's mostly quiet if you ever need somewhere to be alone with your thoughts or your emotions."

"Sounds great," Lucy said, "Lead the way."

**X X X X X**

"So what did you bring for lunch?" Rachel asked. The girls were seated in the second row of the auditorium looking up at the mostly empty stage, save for the grand piano. Despite the school having virtually no arts programs whatsoever, the existing facilities were well maintained. The stage was waxed every month. The piano was cleaned and tuned regularly by Al Motta at Motta's Piano World. The stage lighting still worked.

"It's called a VLT," Quinn said.

"What's that?"

"It's a vegan BLT, with avocado mayo and Smart Bacon instead of real bacon," Quinn explained. Rachel stared at her wide eyed. "I'm-I'm vegan." Still with the staring, "Right, okay, veganism is like being a vegetarian but…"

"I know," Rachel squeaked excitedly, again there was an enormous smile on her face, "Sorry, didn't mean that to be quite so loud. I'm vegan too," she explained, "The only one in all of Lima as far as I know, well until now that is." Rachel sighed with a smile. "Oh, this is very exciting for me. I've never been able to share lunch with anyone before. I mean, I don't wish to assume anything, Lucy, but just so you know I have a black bean salad that is to die for if you would like to share. Not that you have to."

Now was Lucy's turn to smile so widely that her cheeks began to hurt. Rachel's excitement was rather infectious. "Assuming you aren't over selling the quality of your salad, it sounds great, and I even have dessert." Rachel stared at her expectantly. "Homemade vanilla pudding."

"Lucy, you have just made yourself a new best friend," Rachel said as she quickly began retrieving her food and utensils out of her bag. Lucy also began unpacking and soon the two girls were eating and happily chatting mostly about nothing important. All too soon it was time for lunch to end. "What class do you have next?" Rachel asked.

"AP Bio, you?"

"AP?" Rachel said somewhat surprised. She smiled to herself as she dropped her eyes and huffed out a laugh. "Never judge a book by its cover, Rachel." She looked back up at Lucy who had an inquisitive eyebrow hiked. "I, uh, I guess I just saw dyed hair and a nose ring and assumed something I shouldn't have. I was about to offer you my assistance as tutor, but you could probably help me out."

"If you need," Lucy said as they started making their way up the aisle.

"Maybe in Bio," Rachel said, "I'm pretty good everywhere else. I'll let you know if I think I need the help." Lucy pulled open the door back out into the hallway and held it for Rachel who said, "Thank you." As she passed Lucy couldn't help but check Rachel out. It wasn't immediately obvious but Lucy suspected that Rachel had an amazing ass under that skirt to go along with some really killer legs. Very old friend or not, Lucy couldn't deny being attracted to Rachel... and not just physically. Now she just had to figure out if the girl swung this way or not.

She was in mid-thought as to how to figure that out when a voice called from behind them, "Hey, Lu!" She recognized the voice immediately, it was very distinctive. She turned to meet the source of the voice only to be wrapped up in her strong arms and quickly spun around in circles. "I'm so glad you're here!" Brittany exclaimed.

Lucy cackled in laughter through about three revolutions before she started getting nauseous. "Brittany, Brittany, honey," she said still laughing, "You gotta put me down or you're gonna be wearing my lunch." Brittany did a couple more, slower spins and then settled Lucy back down on her feet. "It's good to see you, sweetie," she said leaning in to give Brittany a proper hug, "I was beginning to wonder when I was going to run into you."

"Yeah, sorry," Brittany said wearing a beaming smile, "Coach had us in practice most of the day yesterday. She says the first day of school is a total waste of time."

"She's not completely wrong about that," Lucy said. Suddenly she remembered that she wasn't alone, quickly looking back and forth between Brittany and Rachel. "Do you two know each other?"

The introductions were cut short by the arrival of another cheerleader whose presence made Rachel visibly flinch. She was Latina, penetrating eyes, beautiful black hair pulled back in a high ponytail like all of the cheerleaders Lucy had seen so far. If not for the serious bitch vibe she was carrying and the horrible scowl on her face, Lucy would be tempted call her the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. "So you're Fabray, huh?" she said.

"Most people call me Lucy," she replied, "Brittany calls me Lu."

"Don't care," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "I'm Santana Lopez, Head Cheerio and Top Bitch around here. My girl Britts, here, says you've got dance moves. So here's what you're gonna do, lose the red shit in your hair, get extensions long enough to pull up in a pony, pull out the nose ring, get contacts, ditch the dwarf, and I'll let you be on my squad." To punctuate her command, Santana crossed her arms across her chest and shot an eyebrow to the sky.

Rachel was slightly terrified of Santana at all times but now she was in serious freak out mode because she felt like she was moments away from losing her friend that she'd just reacquainted herself with. She wasn't dumb, being a Cheerio gave you carte blanche at McKinley. You could do virtually anything and get away with it. So when the sounds of laughter came rolling out of Lucy's throat, Rachel was more than a little worried about what would happen.

"So," Lucy said, "Just give up everything that makes me, me, so that I can fall in line and be another one of your sheep? Pass."

"I'm not a sheep," Brittany said.

"No, Brittany, you aren't," Lucy agreed, "You are a beautiful, unique unicorn, and I love every last piece of you, but the other *scoff* Cheerios are just a bunch of mindless followers."

"Okay," Santana bit out, "So you got a bit of a backbone, do ya? Fair enough, you join up and you and Britt can be my seconds-in-command." Santana cast an eye to Rachel and said, "Why are you still here, Hobbit? Don't you have a like The Tranny Prom to get ready for?"

"You really need to work on your sales pitch, Lopez," Lucy said, "First you tell me to change everything about myself, _then_ you insult one of only two people at this school who's been nice to me and you want me to be one of your Fruit Loops?"

"Cheerios," Santana bit out.

"Right, that," Lucy snarked back, "Like I said before, pass. Come on, Rachel. Let me walk you to class. Brittany, I'll see you at dance tonight, right?"

"Totally," Brittany responded.

As they turned to go, Santana called after them, "You're making a mistake, Fabray."

"Gee, I've never done that before," Lucy called out without looking back, "However will I live with myself?"Rachel and Lucy walked side-by-side steadily down the hallway away from the cheerleaders.

When they were two halls away, Rachel finally spoke again, "She's not wrong, you know?"

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"You just made a very powerful enemy in Santana Lopez," Rachel explained, "You likely just relegated yourself to the bottom of the social pyramid."

"That's nothing new for me," Lucy said, "Everyone at my old school hated me, but the truth is that I'd rather be hated for who I am then loved for trying to be someone I'm not. If I've got one friend here, then that's one more than I had at Bellville and I made it through there okay."

"Well, you definitely have one friend here," Rachel said, "Maybe two if Brittany remains friendly to you despite the differences in your social standing."

"I'm pretty sure she will," Lucy said.

"Pardon me if what I'm about to say sounds like a non-sequitur, you already said, or at least implied, that you can dance but can you sing as well?"

"Um, yeah, I'm pretty good," Lucy said, "I was in the children's choir at church until I stopped attending. Why do you ask?"

"Glee Club needs members," Rachel said, "We currently only have six. We need at least twelve to enter competition. The group we have is very talented vocally, though don't tell _them_ I said that lest they get big heads and start slacking off, but aside from myself and Tina we don't have many strong dancers. I was hoping you'd be willing to help fill that gap."

"So if you need a dancer, why did you ask if I could sing?"

"I'm just trying to gauge your talents."

"Okay," Lucy said.

"Plus if you're a good singer then we'd have you audition with something that suits your voice. I'd be happy to assist you in song selection."

"The club's not even close to full but I still have to audition," Lucy ask incredulously.

"Well, okay, it's not strictly speaking an audition," Rachel corrected, "so much as just an exhibition to demonstrate what you're capable of so that our coach can determine where and how best to feature you."

"What would I have to sing? Because I have to tell you, show tunes aren't really my thing."

"The songs sung in competition are chosen by Mr. Schuester, our coach, which may include selections from musicals, but our week-to-week training assignments we get to choose within certain parameters what to sing," Rachel said.

"When does it meet?"

"Monday, Wednesday, and Friday immediately after school. So tomorrow would be the next one," Rachel said, "If you'd like you come over to my house today and we could work on your presentation."

"I have Jazz Fusion class until 6:30," Lucy said, "But I could come by after that."

"That would be just fine," Rachel said stopping on front of a classroom that was presumably her next class, "That will give me a chance to work on my homework in advance of your arrival. Do you want to put your number in my phone?" She offered up the pink jeweled device.

"You have a bedazzled phone cover?" Lucy asked, "Where did you even find such a thing?" She quickly typed out the pertinent details.

"Didn't find it," Rachel said, "I made it. I have a Bedazzler." Lucy looked at her with doubt on her face. She thought Rachel might be joking. "I don't have a lot of friends either."

Lucy handed Rachel back her phone just as the first bell rang. "So just text me when you have a chance with your address, that way I'll have your number and know where to go when I get out of class."

"Okay," Rachel said with a smile, "Thanks for sharing lunch with me."

"Thanks for finding me," Lucy said.

**X X X X X**

Twenty minutes later, in the middle of class, Lucy's phone buzzed against her leg in her right pocket. She discretely pulled it out to find a text message that said: _209 Devonshire Dr. Take Hwy 209 east past Eastgate Shopping Center. At the Devonshire exit, go North, it will be on the left. _Lucy was grinning at the very detailed instructions when her phone buzzed again and another message appeared that said: _This is Rachel, by the way. Just in case you were invited to more than one person's home tonight._ This time Lucy had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing at the girl.

_Should you be texting in class, Ms Berry?_

_No, but then neither should you, Ms Fabray, and in my defense, I'm in Mr. Schuester's Spanish class. You are in AP Bio. One of us should be dedicating much more attention to what they are doing and as I seem to recall Mr. Schuester did his undergrad studies in accounting not Spanish._

_Is he really that bad?_

_Put it this way, my Spanish tutor is Dora the Explorer and I learn far more there than here._

_LOL, glad I take French then._

_So you never said what type of music you do like. Maybe I could make some suggestions as to what would make an impression._

_Largely stuff that most people have never heard of._

_Oh yeah, try me._

_Okay, I'll name artists one at a time and you jump in when I name one you know._

_Okay, go._

_Gotye_

_Bon Iver_

_Passion Pit_

_Deadmau5_

_Arctic Monkeys_

_The Dead Weather_

_Silversun Pickups_

_Fun._

_Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeroes_

_You're doing this on purpose. Fine, I see your point._

_Okay, I'll throw you a bone, The Black Keys, Death Cab for Cutie, Florence and The Machine._

_Yes, yes, yes, I know those three._

_Congratulations, Pop Princess._

_I suppose that makes you what, a hipster? And while I may dabble in pop music, my true love is Broadway and Musical Theater in general._

_You're not the first person to call me that. I like what I like and if that makes me a hipster then… whatever._

_God, that's such a hipster thing to say._

_Okay, ignoring you, paying attention to class now._


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: Glad everyone liked the last installment, so here's another. Hopefully you enjoy this as well. Here's we'll get a little bit of Lucy/Brittany time in. I guess their hybrid name for this story would have to be Fierce since Quitt doesn't really fit since she's not Quinn. Then more Faberry time.**

**In a more general sense, I'm having trouble focusing on any one story right now so who knows what will be updated when. I'm currently writing chapter 4 or this story, chapter 7 of "Keeping the Creed" and Chapter 12 of "You Can Do Better". I have no idea which I'll finish first.**

**Chapter Two**

"You know, I didn't say anything to Santana, but think it would be really cool if the cheer squad was called Fruit Loops instead of Cheerios. Fruit Loops are way tastier, plus colorful. Red and white is kinda plain. You know how much I really love being colorful," Brittany said apropos of absolutely nothing near the end of dance class.

It took Lucy a minute to recall having called them Fruit Loops in the first place. "Yeah, I do," she said, "So you guys are pretty close, you and Santana? I remember you've talked about her a few times before."

"Oh, yeah," Brittany said enthusiastically, "We've been besties since like forever."

Lucy sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and rolled the next question over in her head a couple of times. "Is it going to be weird for you if she and I aren't friends?"

"No," Brittany said without hesitation, "I've been friends with you for like almost two years now and you guys just met. Why would it be weird now?"

Lucy chuckled and smiled to herself at Brittany's unassailable logic. "I just meant now that I basically chose Rachel over cheerleading, and for whatever reason, I don't think she appreciated it," Lucy said, "I just don't want put a strain on your friendship with her."

"You're not," Brittany said, "If Santana has a problem with me and you being friends then it would be her problem, not yours. And she might get crabby about it but I'm still gonna be friends with you. She doesn't own me. Plus, I think it's nice that your friends with Rachel cuz like nobody else is hardly and that always made me kinda sad. Her voice is really pretty when she sings."

"You've heard her sing? Are you in the Glee Club with her?"

"No, I'm not really a very good singer," Brittany said, "I just mostly love to dance." She spontaneously broke from the routine that the instructor was trying to teach into her own freestyle. Lucy saw the instructor roll his eyes at her. This wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last, that Brittany's spontaneity would cause her to show up everyone else in the class. The truth was that even at 16 years old, Brittany could be teaching these classes. She only took them because they were fun and they allowed her to be more inventive than cheerleading.

"Rachel was just telling me today that they need dancers," Lucy said.

"Really?" Brittany asked excitedly, "Are you joining?"

"I was going to go the meeting tomorrow after school and check it out," Lucy answered, "Want to come with?"

"I can't tomorrow, family stuff," she said and Lucy nodded, "but you could tell them about me and if I could just dance and not have to sing then I'm interested."

"Okay."

The instructor called time on the session and dismissed everyone. Brittany and Lucy collected their bags. "Oh! And speaking of coming with, there's a party on Friday at Puck's. You should come and get to know everyone," Brittany said.

"Puck?" Lucy repeated.

"You haven't met Puck yet?" Brittany asked. Lucy shook her head tentatively. "You will, probably before we go to his party on Friday."

"I don't know, Brittany. I'm not much of a party girl."

"C'mon, Lu, pretty please?"

"I wasn't invited," Lucy said.

"All hot girls are invited to Puck's parties and you're totally hot. Please Lucy, we can go together and dance together and it'll be really, really fun, I promise. Santana's gonna be busy with Puck so she won't bother you."

Lucy sighed gently and finally said, "Okay, I guess. Just promise me that you won't leave me there to get swarmed by skeezy football players or whatever."

"I promise," Brittany said, "Oh, if you want you can come over and get ready at my house. I have a dress that I think would look great on you. It will match your red hair."

Lucy smiled softly when Brittany said this because this party was starting to shape up into something that she'd daydreamed of when she was younger and could _only_ daydream about such things, getting invited to a party with all of the popular kids, getting ready a girl friend's house, dancing and having fun. "Sounds great," she said finally.

"Awesome. What are you doing now? Cuz you can come over tonight if you want. My mom's making jerk chicken, which is always great."

"Thanks, but I don't eat meat," Lucy said.

"That's right," Brittany said, "You told me that already. Sorry."

"It's okay, sweetie. Thanks for the invitation anyway, but I'm supposed to go over to Rachel's and work on a song for Glee Club tomorrow." Almost as if on cue Lucy's phone beeped indicating that she had a new text message. She retrieved it from her bag and said, "Speaking of Rachel."

_We're ordering pizza for dinner. Care to split a vegan special with me?_

_Sounds wonderful. Be sure it has artichokes on it. Oh and red peppers, plz. :)_

The girls were walking outside the dance studio when Brittany spoke again, "So are you gonna try to have lady kisses with Rachel?"

The question immediately stopped Lucy dead in her tracks. It wasn't as though the thought hadn't occurred to her, in fact, it had been one of the very first thoughts Lucy had about Rachel when she had re-introduced herself earlier today, but to hear someone verbalize the thought suddenly scared the shit out of her. "Brittany, when we… you… didn't tell anyone about that, did you?"

"Of course not," Brittany said reassuringly, "That's private. It's not my place to tell. People know I like kissing girls… and boys, but it's up to you when and who to tell, especially around here. A lot of people around here aren't very cool about lady kisses."

Suddenly Lucy began to worry who exactly around here wasn't cool with it. Her thoughts immediately went to a certain petite brunette who she was due to be having dinner with in a few short minutes. Before now she hadn't really given much thought to the idea of coming out. Her life was in upheaval enough as it was with the divorce and moving and a new school, she really didn't want to deal with her mom and aunt and uncle flipping over this too so she'd just pushed it away. "Do you… does she… _like_ girls?"

"I have no idea," Brittany said, "I don't think I've ever really talked to her much. I guess you could just ask her." Lucy didn't respond so Brittany added, "And if she's not interested, I wouldn't mind another go."

"Yeah," Lucy said but Brittany's works didn't really register because at the moment whether or not Rachel likes girls was suddenly a lot less important to her than whether or not Rachel was okay with the fact that Lucy did.

**X X X X X**

Rachel didn't like the fact that she was pacing the floor in her bedroom waiting for Lucy to arrive, the mere thought of her doing such a thing made her feel needy and desperate, but disliking a fact didn't make it any less factual. She'd already finished her homework and gotten a little bit ahead in her reading for English class, she'd changed into some of her more casual clothes, and she'd even made plans for dinner.

The truth was she was 16 years old and she'd never had a friend come over after school because she'd never really had a friend before. Mercedes Jones and Kurt Hummel were too much like her, too much diva-tude for all of them or even a pair of them to occupy the same space. For whatever reasons, Artie Abrams just seemed to not like her at all, not that that attitude was uncommon. Tina Cohen-Chang seemed nice enough but Rachel couldn't seem to dial down her ambition enough to stop seeing Tina as the competition. She really, really hoped that wouldn't happen when Lucy joined Glee Club. She hoped that since they were friends first that she could continue to see her only as a friend and not someone trying to take her solos away.

So wrapped up in her own thoughts was Rachel that she barely registered that her phone was ringing. Sir Elton John's cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (She liked it better than The Beatles' original, sue her) announced who it was. Lucy was cancelling was her immediate first thought. She'd gotten a better offer from Brittany who was prettier and more popular than she and legitimately was Lucy's friend besides. She'd gotten asked out by one of the boys at their dance class and she was on her way home to change for her date. Someone had explained to her just how much of a social pariah Rachel Berry was and she was just going to avoid being around her like so many other people did.

By the time she'd crossed the eight or so feet to retrieve her phone she was pretty much convinced it was bad news of some sort. "Hello," she said glumly as she answered the call.

"Rachel, it's Lucy, are… are you okay?"

"Yes," Rachel said with a huff, "You're not coming, are you?"

"What? Of course I'm coming. I just agreed to split a pizza with you not ten minutes ago. Why would you say that?"

"I'm sorry, Lucy. That was horrible of me to assume that," Rachel said, "I'm just not used to having people actually want to hang out with me, who _want_ to be my friend. Everyone who's ever come over has done so as part of some obligation, be they social or curricular, and I'm not trying to excuse myself for…"

"I get it, Rachel," Lucy interrupted, "More than you can imagine. Just do me a favor and look out your front window."

"Okay," Rachel said taking the two steps between where she was and the window of her bedroom. She pulled the curtain aside and quickly took in the image of her front yard, much as it always was. A moment later she finally realized what Lucy was having her look for, parked along the street in front of the house was a bright yellow, ultra compact, two door car and leaning against said car was one Lucy Fabray. "That's such a hipster car."

Lucy snorted and smiled, "Shut up, Fiats are fuel efficient. Have you seen the price of gas lately?" Lucy glanced over to the driveway, "And you're hardly one to talk, Miss Prius."

Rachel smiled back, "Why are you calling me from my front yard?"

"Because there's something we need to talk about," Lucy said.

"Okay, so come in and let's talk about it."

"No, I need to talk about it first," Lucy said, "and I need you to stay there while I tell you. Yes, I'm aware that that this is kind of nuts. I am at peace with that fact, but it's just that if I come in, then there's going to be meeting your parents to deal with and introductions and chit chat and someone is going to want to give me a tour or show me baby pictures or both and I need to know that I'm not wasting their time or mine if this isn't going to work out."

"Work out? Why wouldn't it work out? Is this to do with my parents?" Rachel was trying not to be paranoid and assume the worst once more, but again history made that hard not to do. Most people in Lima were off put by the fact that she had two dads.

"That's what I need to talk to you about," Lucy said and Rachel had to fight the urge to roll her eyes, "Like you I don't have a lot of friends. I've never had many, basically my whole life it's been Brittany for the last couple of years and now you, so before I take another step in the getting to know you process, I need to tell you something about me that you can either accept or not, but it's true and I'm not going to be able to hide it forever so we may as well put it out there now."

_You're a gigantic, homophobic bigot,_ Rachel thought. Her face tightened in preparation for the forthcoming news.

"I'm… I'm gay," Lucy said, "and I hope that you can accept that and us still be friends…"

Lucy was cut off by the sounds of gentle laughter coming through the phone. She was momentarily stunned silent by it. The laughter was finally interrupted by Rachel sucking in a deep breath through her nose, exhaling a moment later, and saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for laughing. It's entirely inappropriate of me, I apologize. Let me assure you that your sexuality is not remotely an issue for anyone in this house. If you'd be so kind as to come in, it will become abundantly clear as to why I reacted the way I did."

Lucy hung up her phone and walked up the driveway to the walkway that led to the front door. As she walked she wasn't sure if she should knock or ring the bell. Either seemed silly since Rachel clearly already knew she was coming but just walking in seemed awfully presumptuous. Fortunately, as she made it to the door, raising her hand to knock, Rachel flung the front door open and quickly latched onto Lucy, arms wrapped around her waist, Rachel's face buried in Lucy's neck. Lucy breathed deeply the scent of Rachel Berry, vanilla and sandalwood, and for a moment thought she'd died and gone to Heaven. _Please let this mean that she's gay too,_ Lucy thought, _or bi or anything that makes it okay for me to kiss the hell out of her for hours on end._

"Thank you for sharing that with me," Rachel said her breath warm against Lucy's neck, "I know it couldn't have been easy trusting me with such sensitive information after so little time, but it means the world to me that you did." Lucy really had no idea say. Her brain was still trying to process her reactions to Rachel being this close to her while Rachel was saying something incredibly heartfelt and sincere. At some point she had managed to return Rachel's hug, it felt far too good not to, but speaking was still beyond her at the moment. "And again, I'm sorry for laughing, but you'll understand why in just a moment."

Rachel released the hug and Lucy suddenly felt incomplete like some piece of her had suddenly been ripped away. She felt her shoulders sag and the muscles in her neck tense. Almost immediately after releasing the hug, Rachel slipped a hand into Lucy's and all of her momentary tension dissipated once more. "Come on," Rachel coaxed.

Rachel led them through the front hall past a row of pictures of Rachel through the ages the earliest of which she couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks old. Rachel quickly grew up before Lucy's eyes until they came to five year old Rachel that she remembered. Just past that picture was an opening that led into what was clearly the family room. The walls were a warm, dark red. A large, rather comfortable looking sectional sat in one corner while a flat screen TV, about 52 inches to Lucy's estimation, was the centerpiece of a what appeared to be a top of the line home theater system. More pictures adorned this room but Rachel was pulling Lucy along too quickly for her to take much note of them.

The family room let out into a short hallway with off-white walls and two doors opposite one another. "Closet," Rachel said pointing to her right, "Restroom," she pointed to the left.

"Important information to have," Lucy said.

"Indeed," Rachel said with a smile.

At the other end of the hallway was a spacious formal dining room with a large apparently antique dining room table with six chairs surrounding it. Four places were set with clear crystal plates, expensive looking flatware, cloth napkins and empty tumblers. In between were two six inch metal stands whose purpose Lucy didn't know. Another door in the wall to their right seemed to lead into the kitchen as Lucy could hear the sounds of food preparation, music, and someone humming. "Dads, Lucy's here," Rachel said as she strode through the doorway.

"Sorry, Pumpkin, we didn't even hear the doorbell ring," said Rachel's dad, a very tall (like really, really tall, a good fifteen inches taller than Rachel) man with slightly graying dark hair, glasses not entirely dissimilar to Lucy's, and a slightly tanned completion quite similar to Rachel's. He looked up from the bread he was cutting, "Lucy, welcome to our home. I'm Hiram," he pointed to himself before pointing across the island he was working over, "My husband, Leroy."

At this prompting, Lucy finally took note of the other occupant of the kitchen, another tall man, not as tall as Hiram but still very tall, with curly mostly gray hair, a bright smile, and some sort of ethnic completion. If Lucy had to guess she'd say he was either part Italian or very light skinned African American, hard to tell and not the sort of thing one wanted to ask the parents of a friend, especially ones you just met. Leroy walked over to Lucy extending a hand. As he came Lucy noticed that his apron said Sing for My Supper. "Nice to meet you, Lucy," he said, "My daughter has nothing but great thing to say about you."

Lucy shook his hand while the last couple of minutes caught up with her. Words like "dads" and "husband" finally took root in her brain and as Rachel had assured her, she suddenly understood why Rachel had laughed when Lucy had come out to her. She understood it so well in fact that she was now having a bit of giggling fit herself. "I told you," Rachel said as she began to laugh again.

"I get the distinct impression that we're missing something," Leroy said now back to work on the salad he'd been attending to.

Suddenly Lucy's eyes went wide. She was not ready to tell them yet. She really hadn't been ready to tell Rachel but she'd judged it better to tell her now and avoid the risk of losing a dear friend later. Rachel's dads on the other hand weren't going to reject her, ever, not for being gay anyway. As such she didn't really deem it necessary to let them in on it. On the other hand, she didn't want to lie to them. As her mind raced, Rachel chimed in before she could, "Lucy's recently come to understand how gay unfriendly Lima can be and she and I hadn't broached the subject today at school, so we had this discussion a few moments where she expressed that the subject of gay rights is very important to her and if I was as bigoted and intolerant as many here are that we should discontinue our budding friendship before it even really began."

"And she laughed at me," Lucy said quirking an eyebrow before smiling once more, "but then she said that I'd soon understand the source of her mirth."

"Oh, excellent word, mirth," Hiram said looking back up from his work arranging breadsticks on a cookie sheet, "Suggests _spontaneous _amusement or gaiety, manifested briefly in laughter, typically characterizing people who are enjoying the _companionship_ of others." Hiram nodded at Leroy with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Leroy only rolled his eyes in response.

"Dad's an English professor at OSU Lima," Rachel said, "As if that weren't now completely obvious by his bout of Word Nerd."

"As I've often told you, Little Star, there's absolutely nothing wrong with appreciating the beauty of the spoken word," Hiram said, "You, as a future performing artist, should take the time to get to know the language that will one day make up your life's work."

Rachel rolled her eyes at her father and redirected her attention, "Lucy, can I offer you something to drink?"

"Um, I could use some water, but I can get it," she said.

"But you're our guest," Rachel said, "I am happy to get it."

As Rachel made her way to the refrigerator to get Lucy a bottle of water, Leroy said, "Ah, quite right you are, darling daughter, she is… our… guest." Lucy knew she recognized the cadence of his last few words but couldn't immediately place them. "Hiram, pop that bread in the oven. I think it's time we retire to the lounge and await the food."

"Yay!" Rachel squealed in delight.

Lucy was thoroughly confused, but the Berrys were all smiles so this had to be some sort of family tradition that she was to be let in on so that made her smile as well. "Rach, you take the lead," Leroy said, "Give us just a minute and then you bring Lucy in on…" He glanced at Lucy and winked at her. "Well, you know the cue to hit."

"I do," Rachel agreed.

Hiram slid the tray in the over and set the timer. Both Berry men went out of the kitchen quickly. "You'll either love this or think it's insane," Rachel said. Before Lucy could reply she heard the tinkling of piano keys which apparently was Rachel's cue, "Come on." Rachel took her hand once more and led them out the same way her fathers had gone which lead back to the main hallway past the stairs and the Rachel Through the Ages photo gallery. When they were most of the way down the hallway, Quinn could tell that the piano music was coming from the room opposite the family room.

Rachel stopped leading them. "Ma chere Mademoiselle," she said in a ridiculously bad French accent, "it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight." She resumed leading Lucy into what Leroy had called the lounge where Hiram was sat behind a pristine, white baby grand piano. "And now we invite you to relax, let us pull up a chair," Rachel ushered her to a chair that Leroy was guiding towards them, "as the dining room proudly presents - your dinner!"

"Be our guest! Be our guest! Put our service to the test!" All three sang together and finally Lucy caught up with what was going on, biting her bottom lip as she smiled and laughed slightly.

Hiram sang, "Tie your napkin 'round your neck, Cherie."

Leroy came in next, "And we'll provide the rest."

All three harmonized, "Soup du jour, Hot hors d'oeuvres. Why, we only live to serve."

Hiram sang, "Try the grey stuff."

"It's delicious," sang Rachel.

"Don't believe me?" Leroy questioned.

"Ask the dishes," all three called out, "They can sing, they can dance."

Leroy came next, "After all, Miss, this is France."

"And a dinner here is never second best," Hiram sang low impressively well.

"Go on, unfold your menu, take a glance and then you'll," they sang together.

"Be our guest," sang Hiram.

"Oui, our guest," sang Leroy whose French accent was much better than Rachel's.

"Be our guest!" Rachel finished off the first chorus. Lucy was grinning like an idiot, dancing in her seat, and having a great time. The Berrys sang out the rest of the song trading off lines during the choruses and Rachel singing out the verses. Brittany was right, Rachel's was absolutely magnificent. Lucy watched the two men beaming at their daughter. Their give-and-take through the song meant that they had clearly done this many times before and yet their adoration of Rachel and her beautiful singing voice was no less diminished for having heard it so often.

As if perfectly timed, just as they finished the song, the doorbell rang meaning that the pizza was there and the timer on the oven went off indicating that the bread was ready. The Berry men quickly took off wordlessly to attend to the separate demands.

"That was amazing," Lucy gushed.

"Really?" Rachel said with a huge smile, "I'm so glad you didn't think it was crazy."

"Oh, it was _completely_ _insane_," Lucy shot back excitedly, "That was my favorite part."

Rachel chuckled and held out a hand to Lucy, "Come on," she said, "let's go eat."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: Thank to everyone who reads and reviews. I'm glad to know everyone is enjoying this. For an update on what's going on with me, I'm currently struggling through Chapter 7 of "Keeping the Creed" and Chapter 12 of "You Can Do Better." I know what I want to do with both chapters. I'm just having a little trouble making them coalesce into words and sentences. Chapter 3 of "Here Comes Trouble" is moving right along. I'm also writing a long-ish one shot sequel to my epic Brittina story "What's Your Fantasy?" hopefully to be published to coincide with the one year anniversary of my first publishing that story. Anyway, hope you enjoy.**

**Chapter Three**

Dinner was better than Lucy could have ever imagined. Despite the table having a traditional seat at the head of the table, no one sat in it. Hiram and Leroy sat on one side, Rachel and Lucy on the other. It was such a simple thing but it shifted the dynamic of the evening. Despite being adults they didn't think of themselves as superior to the girls just because they were older and didn't present themselves as such. They are still parents, of course, so they asked them how school was going but of course it was only the second day so not much to report. Lucy told them about her favorite subjects and Rachel fretted about the state of Glee Club but gushed about Lucy joining. Lucy would have pointed out that she hadn't actually said for sure that she was joining and that Rachel had yet to hear her sing, but the mood of the night was mostly upbeat and she didn't want to bring them down so she left it.

The pizza was wonderful, roasted red peppers, black olives, and yes artichoke hearts with vegan mozzarella cheese on herb baked crust. Lucy had never had vegan pizza but she was pretty sure that she was now thoroughly addicted. The Berry Men had what Rachel called The Animal Cruelty Bonanza. Pretty much everyone else called it Meat Madness, but Rachel had a heart for animals and a flair for the dramatic, so…

Ultimately, what struck Lucy most was how normal the whole evening was. Despite her acknowledgement of her own homosexuality, Lucy was still raised in her father's home to believe what her father believed about "the gays" and while she'd never believed all of it, she did still have a lot preconceived notions of what gay people were like. Some of them, the Berry Men had done nothing to disabuse her of (obsession with musicals, musical theater, Barbra Streisand), but others, the big ones, were quickly being blown out of the water. There was nothing deviant about their relationship. Hiram and Leroy were just two men who loved each other madly after almost twenty five years together, who showered their daughter with love and affection and support, two things Lucy's parents couldn't claim.

After dinner, Rachel and Lucy headed upstairs to go over Quinn's song selection. Rachel's bedroom had a giant gold star on the outside of the door with her name in big block letters and apparently Rachel's middle name is Barbra, which... go figure, still it was a better middle name than Quinn, right?

The interior of the room absolutely screamed optimism, the walls were bright yellow, her Queen-sized bed had a yellow, green, and pink floral print comforter, posters for what were presumably her favorite movies and musicals were hung all around her room, all upbeat and happy stories... well, except for Les Mis, anyway. Words of inspiration like 'dream', 'success', and 'Broadway' were posted on the walls all around the room as well.

"So your dads are kind of awesome," Lucy said as she moved to sit on Rachel's bed.

"They are," Rachel said with a proud smile. She sat down at her desk chair in front of her computer and turned to face Lucy, "I'm very lucky to have them for parents."

"Can I ask, did they adopt you or..."

"They used a surrogate," Rachel said, "why do you ask?"

"I was just curious," Lucy said, "Curious as to whether or not they'd adopt me."

Lucy smiled but Rachel frowned, "Are things that bad at home?"

Lucy looked down and shook her head a little, "No," she sighed, "Not bad really, just not good."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," Lucy said, "but I probably should. I certainly can't talk to them about it."

"You can say as much or as little as you feel like saying," Rachel said, "I'm glad to listen and I won't judge you."

"My..." Lucy started and stopped, huffing out a breath before beginning again, "My mom was raised to be the stereotype of the Good Christian Housewife. She met my dad when she was 20. They were at Kent State together. He was in grad school about to finish up his MBA. They got married when he graduated the next year. She was 21 at the time and she left school to go be a homemaker and that's all she's done for 30 years. She's 50 and has no work experience and no job skills. She can barely use a computer. We've been here three months and she can't find a job because the economy is bad and every job that is out there someone else is better qualified. My Aunt Caroline is a younger version of my mom so she's around but can't really relate. My Uncle Derek is a good uncle but works a lot." She sighed deeply, "Basically, it's really fucking lonely in that house a lot of the time."

"I can relate," Rachel said. Lucy immediately shot her skeptical look. "Not at home, of course," she explained. "At home I have the most amazing set of parents anyone could ever as for, but outside of the house I don't really have anyone that's there for me."

"That's all over now," Lucy said, "I may just be one person, but I've got your back."

"Really?" Rachel said with an excited smile on her face.

"Of course," Lucy said, "Why wouldn't I? We're friends, right?"

"I… yes, of course, I'm-I'm sorry," Rachel said. She stood up and took the two steps to the bed and sat next to Lucy. "I… it's the same thing as when you called earlier. In the course of the last nine years, I've had a few friends for one day and then a better offer came along that would require them to stop being friends with me and thus far, to a one, they've all abandoned me. I'm afraid the only remedy will be time, us still being friends tomorrow and next week and…"

Lucy quickly put an arm around her shoulders and pulled Rachel into her. Rachel laid her head on Lucy's shoulder and Lucy leaned hers against the top of Rachel's head. "I'll be there," Lucy said, "I promise."

"Thank you," Rachel replied softly. They sat like that for a while, neither one of them really marked how long. "You're always welcome here," Rachel said. Lucy lifted her head and Rachel lifted hers to look up at her. "When you get lonely, I mean. You're always welcome to come over, even if we're just sitting silently working on homework for classes we don't share."

"Is that cool with your dads?" Lucy asked.

"Lucy, my fathers adore you," Rachel said, "They liked you before you even came over because they love the drama of our story, childhood friends reunited after a decade apart, but then you came over and they actually met you. Now they're all set to decorate the guest room to your liking."

Lucy chuckled lightly because after only a couple of hours of knowing them, she knew Rachel wasn't likely exaggerating. "Good to know that I have a place to go if my mom ever finds out about me being gay."

"Oh, Lucy, don't talk like that," Rachel said, "I mean, of course, yes, hypothetically, if that happened, you would certainly be welcomed here, for as long as you need, but don't assume the worst of your mother, okay? People can surprise you if you give them a chance. If she truly is how you describe her, then did you ever think that she'd have the courage to leave your father?"

"No," Lucy said after a moment's contemplation.

"So, see there?" Rachel said, "Now, let us turn our attention to your jaw dropping debut in Glee Club."

It was a familiar situation. It was after school this time around. The third day went by fairly quickly; most people's fascination with "the new girl" had waned considerably. For some she'd been transitioned into "that weird girl" but most just ignored her, which after years of being harassed she would take being ignored gladly.

Someone, a familiar someone, behind her cleared their throat. Lucy smiled as Rachel said, "Are you Lucy Fabray?"

"You're such a dork," Lucy said with a chuckle.

"Couldn't help myself," Rachel said, "I thought we could walk to Glee together to cut down on the 'Who are you?' looks you might get."

"Sounds good," Lucy said shuttling her locker.

They walked down the hall side-by-side in silence for a moment before Rachel broke it, "Okay, there was one other reason I wanted to catch up to you before Glee. I wanted to give you fair warning that I have a tendency to get somewhat intense in Glee Club meetings, and by somewhat intense, I actually mean that I'm known to sometimes get upset, fly of the handle, and storm out of the room."

"Okay," Lucy said clearly confused.

"It doesn't really mean much," Rachel said, "I get upset at something and my dramatic sensibilities take over and before I can even take a second to calm down I'm halfway to the parking lot. After that I usually don't want to go back tail between my legs to listen to them snigger about what a diva I am." Lucy wanted to say something to make her feel better but she couldn't think of anything. Instead she put her arm around Rachel's shoulders. "They aren't really my friends," she said, "Just people with common interests who occasionally tolerate my presence."

"Their loss then," Lucy said, "because being your friend is pretty cool, I think, and your presence is actually something I was looking at having more of. Are you seriously not in _any_ AP classes?"

"I'm more focused on the arts than academics," she replied.

"Rachel, with a vocabulary as big as yours and an interest in the arts you should at _least_ be in AP English with me, and arts colleges look at that sort of thing too, maybe not as heavily as if you are in school musicals and things like that but every little bit counts, right?"

"Santana's in the AP classes," Rachel said.

"Fuck Santana Lopez," Lucy said far louder than one should say such a thing in a school hallway and Rachel quickly shushed her, "She's not going to do anything to you. Just think about switching into the class, okay? I know you'd do well and it would help you."

Rachel sighed softly, "I'll think about it," she said before coming to a halt outside an open door. "Well, here we are, the McKinley High Choir Room."

"Before we go in, I just wanted to mention something and I'm 99.999% sure I don't really need to mention this but, y'know, I just need to mention it."

"Okay," Rachel said with concern in her eyes.

"The uh… matter that we discussed on the phone last night," Lucy said. Rachel nodded understanding the code, "You're one of only two people that know that, okay? And it needs to stay that way for now."

"Oh," Rachel said, "of course. Of course."

Lucy smiled at her, "Thanks, and like I said after your artful editing of the conversation in question with your dads last night, I really didn't think I even needed to mention it, but…"

"But you don't want to leave such things to assumptions," Rachel finished for her nodding, "Those who dwell in small, windowless places generally reserved for one's clothing shouldn't take chances."

Lucy chuckled, "Small, windowless places," she repeated, "That's ironic because I'm claustrophobic." Rachel then joined her in a brief laugh. "All right, let's do this," she said finally. They walked into the choir room and Lucy surveyed it quickly. Her first observation was that it was a really big space for such a small club. There's a baby grand piano which Lucy assumed was the same one from the auditorium because what were the odds that this poor, no-money-for-the-arts school had two baby grands? There was a small jazz band set up on the far side of the room from where they entered. There was a set of three-tiered risers along the outside wall with stacking chairs set out optimistically. There were four other students in the room aside from Lucy and Rachel. There was a cute Asian girl with colorful make-up and vaguely Goth clothes sitting next to guy in a wheelchair with floppy, brown hair and glasses dressed like someone's grandpa. Lucy remembered seeing them in the halls but didn't have any classes together so she didn't know their names. She also didn't know the name of the walking fashion statement with the very obvious weave, but her very obviously gay best friend was in Lucy's French class. His name was Kurt something and he too was a walking fashion statement, only his statement was yelling about his sexuality.

Through the other door to the room walked a curly haired man in his mid-thirties in a shirt and tie so this was presumably Mr. Schuester the terrible Spanish teacher and Glee Club director set on ruining all of Rachel's dreams, according to her. Behind him was walking tree of a human being with dark hair and a goofy grin on his face. He quickly broke off from the teacher and made his way over to them. "Hey, babe," he said. Lucy immediately rolled her eyes at him but Rachel was grinning widely as he leaned down to peck her on the cheek. "I missed you," he said, "I know sixth period was only like an hour ago, but… y'know."

A flash of guilt passed over Rachel's face before she flushed and said, "Finn, this is my friend Lucy Fabray. Lucy, this is my boyfriend Finn Hudson."

"Hey," he said to Lucy.

"Um, hey," Lucy said looking from him back to Rachel her face nothing but pure confusion.

"I'm gonna go have a seat," he said and Rachel nodded.

"You have a boyfriend?" Lucy asked a touch too harshly.

"Y-Yes," Rachel said seemingly hurt at the tone, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Sorry," Lucy said, "I didn't mean it to sound like that. I'm not, like, upset about it, just surprised because you never really mentioned it. I know your whole life's plan after having known you for a day. It just seems like your boyfriend would have come up, but it's whatever, you know? Let's go sit. It looks like everyone is waiting on us."

Lucy led them over towards the risers but Rachel stopped them in the middle of the room and suddenly everyone was looking at them. Actually, they were already looking at them but now it felt like their attention was more fixed… or something. "Fellow Glee Clubbers," Rachel began as though she were the President delivering a State of the Union address, "Good news, I have found us a seventh member. This is my friend Lucy Fabray."

"You have a friend?" said the female fashion statement who has now transitioned into the full on stereotype of the Sassy Black Woman.

Kurt stage whispers to her, "Hipster chick. I give it a week before she calls us all stupid for listening pop music." Lucy's not sure if she was meant to hear that or not but it would have been rather hard for her to not have, so she assumed she was.

She glared at the both of them before and said, "Yeah, you know what? Never mind."

She turned to march back out the door but she's stopped by a hand on her forearm from Rachel and one on her shoulder from Mr. Schuester (which is a tiny bit too familiar too soon, but…). "Please don't," Rachel said very softly. Lucy locked eyes with her for a long second before relenting.

She waited for Mr. Schuester to call The Fashion Twins out on being assholes but it didn't happen. Instead he just turned to her and said, "I'm sure Rachel told you that we need to hear you sing." Lucy nodded at him. "Are you ready to go now? If not we can wait until Friday…"

"No," Lucy said cutting him off, "I'm ready to go now." Mr. Schuester nodded and went to take a seat while Rachel handed sheet music to the band and then took her seat. Lucy cleared her throat and then nodded to the piano player who started playing followed soon by the rest of the band.

_I never loved nobody fully  
Always one foot on the ground  
And by protecting my heart truly  
I got lost in the sounds  
I hear in my mind  
All these voices  
I hear in my mind all these words  
I hear in my mind all this music_

** X**

Lucy killed the song, or so the Asian girl and wheelchair guy (Tina and Artie, apparently) said, which wasn't really surprising because Lucy knew the song backwards and foreword before Rachel had her go over it twenty times. Afterwards, Mr. Schuester had her run through some dancing basics which she also knocked out of the park and threw in some of her own stuff on top of that just to really show him that she knew what the hell she was doing. So impressed with her was Mr. Schuester that soon he had everybody up and running through some group choreography and Lucy found that Rachel's assessments of their dancing skills were mostly accurate. Rachel and Tina were good, not quite are natural as she, but they'd clearly put in their time in classes. Kurt and Mercedes weren't exactly gifted but they picked up the steps after a couple of run throughs. Artie… Lucy knew that wheelchair dancers existed but she'd never seen one personally so she didn't know exactly how Artie stacked up, but there was a natural fluidity to the movements of his upper body so Lucy thought if he weren't in the chair that he'd probably be better than her. Finn was just hopelessly uncoordinated. He didn't have two left feet, he had like seven. Honestly, he couldn't even shuffle step across a room gracefully and at the moment, with the group as small as it was, it was really, painfully obvious. They needed some talented people to shore him up or maybe just to stand in front of him so no one could tell.

Lucy thought to mention Brittany and her interest in the club, but she still wasn't entirely certain that she was going to stick around so she definitely wasn't going to get their hopes up about Brittany. They hit the tenth time through this routine and Finn was still messing up, badly, so Lucy just went on auto-pilot, vaguely registering the counts and hitting all the cues without even a fraction of her attention dedicated to what she was doing.

Then Finn tripped, over what one could only guess, but he fell into Rachel who then fell into Mercedes. All three of them hit the floor and Mercedes bit out, "Damn, White Girl, you're supposed to be so damn talented, why you can't keep your hands to yourself?" Lucy was pretty sure that Mercedes thought she was just ribbing Rachel but she also knew that Rachel didn't think that jabs at her talent were funny and just as Rachel had warned her she was prone to doing as soon as Rachel was back on her feet she was marching out of the room in a huff. Everyone laughed at her… well everyone except Mr. Schuester who rolled his eyes running his hand over his over styled hair but said nothing to anyone.

Lucy offered Finn a hand up and when he stood, she nodded her head towards the door his girlfriend had just left through. He didn't seem to get it just standing there. "What?" She sighed at his sheer stupidity, grabbed hers and Rachel's things, and started walking to the door.

"Lucy, practice isn't over," Mr. Schuester said.

"Okay, but since I never officially joined your club, I really don't care," Lucy said, "I came here because Rachel asked me to and you've now driven her from the room in tears so I'm out."

"Oh please," said Kurt, "She does that all the time."

"Yeah, because you guys upset her all the time," Lucy responded, "I honestly don't know why she puts up with this out of any of you."

She's literally one foot out the door when Mr. Schuester said, "Lucy, are you really not coming back on Friday?"

"At this point, I'm going to go talk _Rachel_ into not coming back on Friday," Lucy said. "If I'm going to have to put up with bitchy, snippy comments from people who are jealous of what I can do, I'd rather go join the cheerleading squad because at least that comes with a certain amount of prestige that looks good on a college application. Rachel said you were having trouble filling up the club and I'm pretty sure I know why, you guys are horrible."

She turned once more and left the room without another word and without listening to anything they said. Rachel was her concern, not them. She remembered that Rachel said she generally went towards the parking lot when she left Glee upset but she also knew that she was carrying Rachel's backpack and purse. Her first thought was to check Rachel's locker but she quickly realized that she had no idea where that was. She walked slowly down the halls looking for Rachel and seeing no sign of her. She rounded a corner and saw a familiar set of double doors. "Duh, of course," Lucy said to herself as she pulled open one of the doors to the auditorium. "Rachel?" She was sitting four rows down on the aisle staring up at the stage. "Hey, Rach, you want to go?" Lucy asked as she strolled towards her friend.

"Mr. Schuester dismissed Glee early?" Rachel asked.

"I dismissed myself early," Lucy said. Rachel looked at her funny, "I left right after you."

"Oh you shouldn't leave just because of me," Rachel said.

"It only seems logical that I would," Lucy said, "I only went there in the first place because of you. I have no real interest in going back, and I don't know why you put up with that sort of treatment. Come on. Let's get you home."

Rachel didn't answer, just stood up and took her things from Lucy. They made their way back out into the hallway. Rachel's eyes were fixed firmly at her shoes. Lucy didn't need another hint so she just walked silently beside her headed for the parking lot. She paid no particular attention to the guy walking towards them, not until she heard the wet smacking sound and the sharp gasp from Rachel.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: Thanks as always for the feedback on this story. Sorry it took so long to update but I got distracted with doing a long sequel to an old favorite, plus y'know, life and stuff. **

**Suspenceme: The first rule of hipsterdom is that you never admit that you're a hipster. The second rule of hipsterdom is that you never admit that you're a hipster.**

**Willowfan: I'd say your powers of prediction are pretty accurate.**

**Ad3n: We'll see if you still think Lucy is too sweet after this. Finn's going to be around for at least a little bit. Sorry.**

**xOrax: Thanks**

**ClawingAtTheSurface: No, it's not bad… at least not in my opinion. Half the reason I wrote it was because I've been waiting for someone to do it in canon. Also **_**your**_** powers of prediction are wicked scary.**

**Brittana For Life: I hope two weeks was soon enough.**

**Garnmcgaughn: My most persistant reviewer, thanks, and I hope you continue to be interested.**

**Chapter Four**

For the longest ten seconds of her life, Lucy tried to process what was happening around her. There was some meathead guy in a letterman jacket standing in front of her, tall, broad shouldered, dark hair, smug smile on his face and an empty drink cup in his hand. Beside her, Rachel had some icy, red substance all over her face, in her hair, on her clothes. Her mouth was open from gasping in shock and her eyes were pinched shut.

Finally realization hit her and Lucy reacted on instinct to someone hurting her friend. Her hands clinched into fists and were flying before she even had time to access whether or not that was a good idea. Two quick left jabs to the mouth followed by a hard right cross to the jaw knocked the stupid smile off of his face.

He clearly hadn't been expecting her to fight back so he was momentarily staggered in surprise, but Lucy knew that wouldn't last long. She could hit pretty hard but this guy was built like a wall and if he could assault someone with a slushie then he could very well hit back against a girl who'd hit him first. Lucy knew she needed to end this quickly so she could tend to Rachel, so she clapped her hands around his neck and yanked pulling his torso down while she drove her knee up. It landed exactly as she meant it to just below the sternum. The impact caused his diaphragm to spasm which very suddenly drove all the air out of his lungs. He fell to the ground gasping for breath. His breathing would return to normal in a minute she knew.

Lucy took Rachel by the hand and started leading her to the bathroom. "Keep your eyes closed, Rachel," she said, "God only knows what's in this crap."

"I've been slushied before," Rachel said.

"This has happened before?" Lucy asked.

"Not just to me," Rachel said, "but I am their most frequent target." They reached the restroom and Lucy held the door with one hand as she guided Rachel in with another. "There should be a folding chair..."

"I see it," Lucy said retrieving the chair from under the sinks. She set it up quickly and guided Rachel to sit in it. Rachel gathered up her long, slushie soaked hair as she leaned her head back draping her hair over the edge of the sink. Lucy turned the water on and started pulling paper towels out of the dispenser. "And nobody does anything about the slushies?"

"It's-it's not really that big a deal," Rachel said.

"Not a big deal? Rachel, this is chipped ice. It could easily damage your eyes, not to mention God knows what chemicals are in the syrup," Lucy said as she wiped the conglomeration off of the girl's face. "That meathead I left laying out there is on the football team with your boyfriend, if I read his letterman jacket right. Why doesn't Finn do anything about this?"

Rachel sighed and said, "I don't know, it has something to do with Right Guard and bags. I don't really understand football terminology."

"He can't stick up for you because of the _stupid _football team?" Lucy asked incredulously, "What the fuck, Rachel? You deserve better than that. Actually, you deserve better than all of this, this school, your boyfriend, those idiots in the Glee Club. I don't know why you put up with any of it to be honest."

"I don't have much of a choice," Rachel said, "New York is my dream, Broadway. I can't get into any schools there without extra-curriculars."

"You always have a choice, Rachel. Extra-curriculars doesn't mean you have to put up with people openly bullying you. There has to be someone who'll give you private voice lessons."

"There is," Rachel said, "Her name's Rebecca Madsen. I already take lessons from her."

"So then come to dance with me and Brittany and you're golden."

"I do ballet and tap classes," Rachel said, "And my fathers are both excellent ballroom dancers. I've grown up dancing with them."

"We do jazz fusion and hip hop," Lucy said, "You should come with us."

"But there aren't any competitions," Rachel said, "I'm… I'm kind of an attention whore. I'm like Tinkerbell, Lucy. I need applause to live."

"You're so dramatic," Lucy said with a smile.

"Perhaps but it's who I am," Rachel said, "And honestly, it's part of what sustains me through the things I'm forced to endure. They can demean me and insult me and even thrown frozen corn syrup in my face but when I'm up on the stage they're forced to respect me because of my talent."

"Sounds like a small consolation to me," Lucy turned on the lukewarm water in the sink to start rinsing out Rachel's hair.

"Yes, well," Rachel paused to contemplate where her thoughts were going, "We work with what's available to us. People don't like me because I'm determined, ambitious, talented, and because I'm getting out of this place where most of them won't. I get it, they're jealous. If I can't have their friendship, then I'll take their begrudging admiration of what I can do." Rachel sighed. "Glee Club may only perform publically a small handful of times each year but what other outlet do I have?"

"You want to be an actor, what about a drama club?"

"McKinley hasn't had one since 2001," Rachel said.

"So we start a new one," Lucy said.

"The school has no money…"

"The school doesn't need the money," Lucy said, "We can do private fundraisers, bake sales, car washes, whatever…"

Suddenly they were interrupted by the bathroom door being pushed open. Tina was standing there holding two bags; one was the one she'd had with her in Glee a few minutes earlier, the other she was holding out towards Lucy and Rachel. "I s-s-saw the m-m-mess in the floor," Tina said, "It l-looked l-like there was b-b-b-b-blood too. Are you ok-k-kay?"

"Aside from the slushie, I'm fine," Rachel said sitting up to accept the bag, "The blood must be from Karofsky who ran afoul of Lucy's fists of fury. Thank you for retrieving my bag, Tina." She unzipped the bag pulling out a towel and a hairbrush.

"W-w-w-welcome," Tina said. She looked to Lucy and said, "W-w-want me to do take over? I have some experience dealing with these things." Lucy stepped aside and offered her place to Tina who stepped up and quickly started de-icing Rachel's face once more.

"So you get these things too?" Lucy asked.

"N-n-not as much as Rachel," Tina said, "M-m-maybe only once a month."

"And Rachel you get them how often?"

"Once a week, at least," Rachel said.

"Okay, you know that that's assault, right?" Lucy said, "You can have them arrested."

"It's been tried before," Rachel said, "A girl name Regina Malcolm had Karen LaGuardia the head Cheerio arrested several years back. Karen was out on bail within two hours and the next day Regina was slushied four times before first period, the day after that she was slushied twice before she even got out of the student parking lot. She didn't come back to school the rest of the week. She wound up transferring _and_ dropping her complaint."

"Y-y-you kinda get use to it after a while," Tina said, "N-n-not completely but…"

"Tina, Tina, Tina, please stop that," Lucy said, "You don't really have a stutter so please just stop." Tina stared at her and tried to protest but the words were not coming. "Look, no judgment, okay? We all protect ourselves in the best way we know how, but it must be tiring doing that all the time."

"Yes," Rachel concurred, "I came to the same conclusion as well. Be whoever you need to be to the world, Tina, but with us you can just be you."

"I…" Tina didn't seem to know what to say, "I, uh, I'm sorry?"

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Rachel said.

"Though if you're not going to help Rachel clean up," Lucy said, "Then let me."

"Oops," said Tina returning to work, "Got distracted by being totally busted. Rachel, if you knew then why didn't you call me out?"

"Like Lucy said, we all protect ourselves. You weren't doing it to curry special treatment or favors that I could tell so it wasn't really my business."

"Well, thanks... I guess," Tina said, "It feels weird to thank someone for not calling you out on being some huge liar. Can I ask what gave me away?"

"Body language," Lucy said, "At least for me. Every time I've seen you, the way you stand and move told me that you had a secret. No surprise there, most every teenager does. But every time you speak, it's deliberate. Everything you say is planned. You're thinking ahead while you speak. Every sound you make is well planned. So either English isn't your native language or you were faking the stutter."

"So then you guessed?"

"I deduced," Lucy said, "Logically it would be nearly impossible for you to be so naturalistic a speaker and be struggling with the language internally."

"And I looked up stuttering on-line after we first met," Rachel said, "because I like to know as much as possible about things affecting peoples' lives. The more I read the more I noticed your behavior didn't match the facts."

"What was I doing wrong?"

"People who have a repeating stutter as you were affecting trip over syllables not individual letters," Rachel said. "So when you were tripping over the word blood earlier you said 'buh-buh-blood' where as someone with a stutter would have said 'bluh-bluh-blood'."

"Good to know," Tina said. When she'd finished getting as much of the red dye off of Rachel's face as possible with the resources available to them, Tina spoke again softly, "So are you guys really gonna quit Glee Club? I mean I understand if you are. Lucy, you were right, and I just got done bitching them out too and you can ask Rachel, I never do that."

"Lucy was just putting forth a pretty compelling list of reasons why I ought to do just that," Rachel said, "I can't say that I was _fully_ convinced yet but I was well on my way."

"Okay," Tina said, "I was just wondering because I don't think I'm gonna bother showing up if you guys aren't."

"Really?" Rachel asked.

"The way I see it, if you quit one of two things happen. One, Mercedes gets made female lead and becomes even more of a diva than she already is, she becomes Dianna Ross, we The Supremes, or two, _I_ get made female lead and Mercedes becomes even more snarky and spiteful than she already is and I crumble under the pressure. Either way, no thanks."

"I highly doubt you'd crumble, Tina," Rachel said, "You're a talented performer. You don't have my range or my years of vocal training but you'd do well. That being said if you wish to depart New Directions, I certainly won't tell you not to."

"Your Glee Club is called Nude Erections?" Lucy asked, "I am _definitely_ out now."

"You would be," Rachel laughed momentarily until she realized what she said. Lucy's eyes bulged quickly before she resumed her game face. "Lu… Tina," Rachel said redirecting her attention hoping that Tina hadn't picked up on her slip-up or if she had that she could be distracted from it, "Lucy has proposed an idea that in lieu Glee Club we could possibly try starting up a Drama Club that…"

"I'm in," Tina said with her typical wide smile.

"Good," Lucy said, "Now all we need is a faculty advisor, fifteen or twenty more people, funding, and some clue as to what sort of play we're going to do." She looked down to her watch. "I should probably be getting home soon. My uncle is actually supposed to be home tonight, family time and all that. Rachel, are you okay to drive? Do you need me to take you home?"

"I'm fine," Rachel assured her.

"Okay," Lucy said, "I'll see you tomorrow. And remember, AP English, think about it. Tina, why aren't you in any of my AP classes?"

"Because I'm a freshman," she said, "And yes, I'm in Freshman AP."

"Fair enough," Lucy said, "Lunch tomorrow, auditorium?" Rachel nodded. "Tina, show up if you want, assuming you have the same lunch period as us."

"See you then," Tina said.

Lucy turned to leave but was stopped by Rachel saying, "Lucy?" She turned back to Rachel who was suddenly wrapping her up in a hug and it felt every bit as good as it had last night. "Thank you for taking care of me."

Lucy smiled and said, "What are friends for?"

**X**

However, before Lucy would be seeing anyone at lunch, she was called out of first period to a meeting with the principal. She'd been called down just after the late bell, before the teacher could begin any lesson so that everyone would be awake and hear her being called down. When she got to the office she was left to sit in his assistant's office for twenty minutes. Since the wall between the offices was made mostly out of glass, she could plainly see that he wasn't with anyone else. He was talking to the phone and messing with his computer, but his body language rang false. He wasn't doing anything important. She couldn't hear what was being said or any words at all for that matter so for all she knew he was just miming being on the phone and playing solitaire on his computer. Either way, Lucy certainly knew mind games when they were being played and this guy had absolutely nothing on Russell Fabray.

Lucy's father's rules of engagement had always been to start with psychological warfare. That was not to say that he was above being physically abusive, although as far as Lucy knew he never had actually hit any of them but she was reasonably certain that was only because he needed his girls to maintain appearances and that was hard to do with black eyes and broken noses, plus, you know, blood was messy and psychological scars ran so much deeper than physical ones anyway. The most common words heard around the former Fabray house were "a good wife would" and "you disappoint me." Most of the time he didn't even raise his voice… unless he'd been drinking that day, then heavy objects were often hurled at walls. Once again, he almost never threw them in anyone's general direction because cuts and stitches and scars were hard to explain and expensive to cover up, but that was small comfort at the time because it would only require a small slip of the wrist and suddenly that crystal sculpture that was supposed to be bound for the wall was instead flying towards your head. Again, it had never happened to Lucy's knowledge, but all of the Fabray women had known that there was always the potential for it. Ultimately, that's all you need to terrorize someone, the fear of what _might_ happen.

Lucy wasn't afraid of Principal Figgins or what might happen in his office, so for as long as he made her wait, she sat perfectly still in one of the uncomfortable chairs in his assistant's office reading. The reason the details of her father's psychological abuse came so clear to her was because she was reading a book called Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and it was sort of about that… not about psychological abuse, but about details, small things that add up to big things. She'd picked it up on a recommendation from someone named Bethany in one of her on-line book clubs. For years, it had been the closest thing to social interaction Lucy had, exchanging book reviews with other lonely teenagers and middle aged housewives, people that she really didn't know and likely would never meet talking about books that they'd liked.

Reading was about the only thing that Lucy hadn't changed about herself… hadn't even tried. As with a lot of lonely, tormented teenagers, she turned to books as a means of escape. She'd polished off The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and caught up on Harry Potter by the time she was twelve. Her mother had tried to get her to read things more typically girly, Jane Austin and Sweet Valley High, but Lucy wanted nothing to do with women chasing boys, which obviously she couldn't relate not so much because she wasn't personally interested in boys (She hadn't really figured that out at that point), but because she was so painfully unpopular that no one was interested in chasing _her_ and she didn't need a constant reminder of that.

Her thoughts and her reading were disrupted by a loud beep and Principal Figgins' voice coming over the intercom telling his assistant to send her in. "Principal Figgins will see you now," she said smiling, a fake smile Lucy knew. She was a connoisseur of fake smiles by now both from herself for years and from others in the last few months. Lucy didn't reply, instead just packing her book into her bag and walking slowly towards the door into the main office (at least, as slowly as one could while crossing ten feet of space).

Inside the office was silent as a tomb. Figgins watched intently as she took a seat very pointedly not talking to her, he wanted her to speak first. Apparently amateur hour at mind games was still going on, but there was no way he was ever going to win this. Lucy sat silently and arched an eyebrow at him. He furrowed his brows at her and she had to fight the urge to laugh at his sad attempt at being intimidating. She'd seen teddy bears more ferocious looking than him.

After about two solid minutes of silence between them, he cracked, "Ms Fabray, you know why you were called in here," he said. It wasn't a question, he wasn't asking. He was telling her that she knew why. He was trying yet again to put her on the defensive and he was apparently getting desperate.

"Can't think of a reason," Lucy said.

He sighed, presumably giving up on whatever game he was trying, "You are here because yesterday after school you had an altercation with another member of the student body, a Mister David Karofsky, which necessitated a trip to the school nurse."

"Oh," Lucy said, "In that case, I should tell you that I am aware of my rights. I don't have to talk to you about any disciplinary matters without a parent or guardian present."

"Fine," Figgins said, "Call your parents, then you and I will sit right here waiting for them to arrive."

"Okay, no problem," Lucy said, "Well, actually, there is one problem with that. My parents can't be called away from work to come down here and deal with this," A flat out lie on Lucy's part, but he didn't know that. "You'll have to call the Child Advocate's Office at the Department of Health and Human Resources and get them to send someone."

"That's in Columbus," he said, "That would take almost two hours for someone to get here."

"Actually," Lucy corrected, "The _office_ is in Columbus, the actual advocates are all over the state… y'know, _advocating_. I'd say someone getting here in two hours would be really lucky on our parts. Realistically, you're probably looking at closer to four, but we can just sit here until they arrive. I've got plenty of reading to do and I'm sure you're very busy too. That curiously quiet shouting match you had with your phone earlier looked very important."

He sighed again. "What do you want, Ms Fabray?"

"It's really more about what you want, Principal Figgins," Lucy replied, "The way I see it you have three options. One, we wait for the advocate and after they get here, I still deny any knowledge of this alleged altercation and require you to present some sort of evidence, which since I know you have no witnesses would have to involve some sort of video of this alleged altercation which would also display Karofsky's actions immediately preceding any actions I may or may not have taken and the fact that he's not in here being disciplined would soon after result in a class action lawsuit filed by my Uncle Derrick, against the school district, the state, and you _personally_ for child endangerment for your unwillingness to do anything about the slushie problem you have around here. You'll definitely be out of a job, probably out of a career, and almost certainly in debt up to your eyeballs. Option two, we can drop this whole advocate thing and I'll confess to your accusations and accept my punishment… right _after_ you haul the football team, the cheerleaders, and all the other jocks in here, make them confess to all the times they've thrown slushies in other students' faces, suspend and expel them as is appropriate to the level of their misdeeds…"

"That would leave the school with no football team, no cheerleaders, no athletics of any kind," he said, "Do you have any idea how much money that would cost the school?"

"We're going to call that your problem, not mine," Lucy said, "Authority figures are fond of telling me that actions have consequences, but as it turns out, _inaction_ has its consequences as well. Assuming you don't like those options, then you'd be interested in option three where you drop this matter and I leave here unpunished, then either tomorrow or sometime next week when Rachel Berry shows up here with a proposal to restart the Drama Club, you rubber stamp the thing, you give her whatever she asks for no questions asked."

The principal stared at her for a long time his face a mixture of anger and humiliation as he plainly had no other choice but to give in to option three. "Please show yourself out, Ms Fabray," he said softly looking back to his computer monitor.

The meeting had wound up taking up most of first period, Lucy knew she only had a few minutes before the bell so she wasn't going to bother going back to class, mostly because of time but also because although she'd perfected the art of appearing unaffected by peoples' opinions she hadn't quite learned how to _actually_ not care what people thought. Instead, she'd opted to swing an entire floor out of her way to see Rachel. She got to Mr. Guntharp's Geometry class just as the bell rang. Students filed out as fast as physics would allow them through the door. Rachel had told her how unpopular the class. Behind the heard was Rachel but she wasn't alone. She was draped over Finn Hudson as she was explaining something that was presumably what they'd just gone over in class just now and only stopped when she'd noticed Lucy standing there. "Hey," Rachel said letting go of Finn.

"Hey back."

"There's a rumor that you were in the principal's office," Rachel said as Lucy nodded. "I hope you aren't in any trouble because of me."

"I'm not in any trouble," Lucy said, "But even if I was, it wouldn't be because of you. I'm responsible for my own actions. You didn't make me do anything. You didn't even ask me to…"

"Rach, we gotta go to class," Finn said jumping in abruptly.

"And, what, you're going to get lost without her?" Lucy shot back along with a glare. "I'm sorry we disrupted your conversation with the one we were already in the middle of."

"I'll be there in a minute," Rachel said to him.

He looked at both of them for a minute before saying to Rachel, "You're still coming over tonight to help with me with my homework, right?"

Rachel sighed and said, "Yes, Finn, that hasn't changed in the five minutes since you asked me in class. I'll see you in just a couple of minutes." He left without saying anything else but pressed a long kiss into the top of her head.

When he was gone Lucy said, "What the hell was _that_?"

"I spent most of last night talking about what happened after Glee Club yesterday and now I think he feels threatened by you," Rachel said.

"By me?" Lucy asked.

"I mean, I didn't tell him… anything that I shouldn't have," Rachel clarified, "I think I just gushed about what a great friend you are and how much I'm looking forward to getting to know you better, and he gets a little jealous sometimes."

"_A little jealous_," Lucy echoed, "Rachel, he wouldn't have come off any _more_ jealous if he'd peed on your leg."

"I know, I think he just feels threatened because you took such good care of me after the slushie, and you know that's traditionally a boyfriend's job."

"I gave him a chance," Lucy said, "Hell I even gave him a big hint when he didn't follow you out of Glee yesterday. He didn't take it, so I really don't know where he gets off being mad at me because he's _just now_ realizing what a crappy boyfriend he is."

"I…I should be getting to class," Rachel said, "You should too. See you at lunch?"

"Yeah," Lucy said opting to let the issue drop. "Be brainstorming about Drama, fundraisers, membership drives, et cetera."

"Oh Lucy," Rachel said with a smile, "I am _so_ far ahead of you right now."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**Willowfan: I'd tell you that but it seems cruel to lie to you and get your hopes up for nothing.**

**Garnmcgaughn: I wanted to do something I hadn't seen done a hundred times before in Faberry Fics and thought Drama Club could be an interesting way to go. I'm with you Faberry for Life (although it's going to take a while to get there in this particular story).**

**ClawingAtTheSurface: inFinnt? Oustanding. All the awards… all of them. And if you felt sorry for Lucy before, then well read on. Yes, it is very early in the story. I'm probably still two more chapters away from having all my characters set up, much less moving them all around.**

**JPElles: I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm glad you're enjoying.**

**David Greybeard: Unholy Trinity will probably be some time off, I'm sorry to say. I love them together but right now expect more of Lucy and Santana butting heads in the near future. Thanks for reading.**

**Comegetit: Thank you. I have every intention of keeping going.**

**Watdaforks: I expect that you will be pleasantly surprised at how soon you saw a new update.**

**A/N: So in case I haven't made clear, this is not going to be a short fic. Five chapters in and I'm still moving all of my characters into place. I hope you guys will bear with me on this. I hope everyone is still enjoying the story. I like suggestions. If any of you have them let me know.**

**Chapter Five**

Lucy was already running late for lunch. She had stayed a few minutes over in class when the bell rang so that she could finish the assignment. She was very nearly done and wanted to avoid taking it home if she could. Then once she left, she was still fighting with her locker which never opened on her first try, ever. Books got hung up when she tried to relocate them from bag to locker. Basically she wasn't having a good time.

Finally, she got her lunch and her afternoon books situated, closed her locker, only to find another jock in a letterman jacket rounding the corner in the direction she was about to be headed. He didn't appear to be armed with a beverage of any kind. Shorter than that Karofsky guy, not much taller than Lucy, and not as your typical football player either, this guy had olive skin, brown eyes, and black hair shaved into a mohawk. Handsome, if you're into dudes, with a cocky smirk on his face and a natural swagger. He walked towards Lucy at a deliberate pace. His body language said determined but unthreatening. "So," he said when he was within five feet of her, "You're the big, tough chick that laid out Dave?"

"A chick is a baby bird, asshat," Lucy said, "and I think you can see that 'big' isn't accurate either, but yeah, I put your buddy on his ass. What about it?" She raised a challenging eyebrow over her glasses at him.

"Dave's not really my _buddy_," he said, "We're teammates and whatever but we don't roll together. As for what about it, I think a babe that can stand toe-to-toe with a dude twice her size is a certified badass and somebody I need to get to _know_ better."

"Babe is a talking pig or womanize baseball player, not that I expect you go get that reference..."

"George Herman Ruth," he cut her off, "Pride of the mother_fuckin_ Yankees, baby."

Lucy stared hard at him determined not to show that she was even the tiniest bit impressed though she might have been. "Well, I guess what you lack in hair, you make up for in almost useless sports trivia knowledge," Lucy said, "And would it _kill_ you to find out my name so that you can stop with the insulting epithets?"

"I know your name," he said, "I make it my _business _to know the names of every hot girl in school and Lucy Quinn Fabray, honey you are smokin... though I gotta say that's a pretty fucking unfortunate name."

"And yours is?" Lucy said with critical eyebrow raised.

"Puck."

"Oh, _you're_ Puck," she said, "Okay good to know. Well, Puck, you insist on calling me words that I've made plain I don't like, you insult my name, and you say you want to get to know me better...which I somehow doubt is an invitation to discuss the more complicated aspects of geo-politics or to dissect the subtext of a Jonathan Swift novel so if you'll excuse me, I'm very late for lunch."

She tried to walk past him but grabbed her upper arm to stop her progress, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, we're just getting started here." She looked down at Puck's hand on her and then glared hard at him. He quickly released her and held his hands up in surrender but deftly positioning himself between her and her escape route.

"What do you even want?" Lucy said, "Aren't you like dating Santana Lopez?"

"No!" he barked out immediately, "Who told you we were _dating_?"

"Brittany..."

"Well, Brittany's an idiot," Puck said, "Wait, no, fuck! Don't tell anyone I said that. I didn't mean that. I meant, she... Brittany doesn't understand things a lot times. Me and Santana aren't dating. We just get together and fuck each others' brains out a couple times a week. That's all. Lots of room to play. Judging by the looks of you, I'd say you could fuck my brains out too."

"Somehow I don't see that as much of a challenge," Lucy bit back at him. "As for my skills in bed, you have _no idea_... and you never will… because you're not my type."

"Babe, I'm everybody's type," he said clearly insulted.

"Trust me," Lucy said, "You're not. Now get out of my way before I put another notch in my black belt." He licked his lips and stared her down, not moving. "If you doubt me, then I'd remind you that your buddy Karofsky is twice _your_ size as well. How much trouble do you think I'd have with you?"

After another moment of staring, he vacated her path and Lucy brushed past him quickly. He called out after her, "See you later… babe!" Lucy really want to go back and just punch him in his stupid mouth but another fight, this soon, would make more trouble for her than she was interested in dealing with and also she was almost twenty minutes late for lunch already and Rachel had a thing about punctuality so she just marched off in the direction of the auditorium.

When she finally arrived, she found Rachel and Tina sitting on a blanket spread out on the stage eating and smiling. She was glad to see them bonding. No one should have just one friend after all. She padded softly towards the stage seemingly going undetected by the other girls.

"…and we saw the 2002 revival of Into the Woods," Rachel was saying, "It was extraordinary!"

"I'm so jealous," Tina said, "I've only ever been to see traveling shows that come around here. I've never been to New York. I'd love to go. I'd actually really like to travel to a lot of places. That's kind of my dream, but we're getting way off topic. West Side Story is definitely on the list. I'm sure you'd beat me out for Maria but I could totally be Anita. Lucy could be Graziella."

"Yeah," Lucy said startling the other girls, "All we're missing is a Tony and a Riff, Bernardo, Chino, Pepe, Officer Krupke…"

"Lucy, you are _very_ late," Rachel interrupted, "Are you okay? You don't appear hurt. Did something…"

"I'm fine," Lucy said settling down beside Rachel retrieving her lunch from her bag, "I'm sorry I'm late. I was finishing up an assignment and then I got ambushed by a moron with a mohowk who wouldn't leave me alone."

"Puck," Tina said.

"Yes, Noah can be very persistent once he's set his mind to something," Rachel said.

"Noah?" Lucy echoed with a smile spreading across her face, "His real name is Noah? No wonder he goes by Puck. Where does that even come from?"

"His name is Noah Puckerman," Rachel explained, "We grew up together."

"You guys are friends?" Lucy asked.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say were ever friends and we certainly aren't now, but Lima's Jewish community is pretty small. The three of us were some of the only kids our age so we used to spend a lot of time together when we were younger, mostly at summer camp."

"The three of you?" Lucy repeated in confusion, "You, Puck, and...?"

"Me," Tina said.

"You're Jewish?"

"To the letter of Hebrew law, yes," Tina said, "The Cohen part of my last name comes from my mother, an Ashkenazi Jew, so I am Jewish..._technically_, but we've never practiced the faith. My parents only sent me to Jewish summer camp when I was younger to try to get me to socialize more. It didn't really work. I don't think I ever said more than a handful of words in four summers."

"I'd like to back up just for a moment," Rachel said, "What exactly is wrong with the name Noah?"

"There's nothing wrong with it," Lucy said, "_Unless_ you're walking around the school trying to present yourself as the world's biggest bad ass and ladies' man. Then it would definitely be a hindrance. Hence, I understand why the nickname."

"Yes, well, it would probably surprise you and perhaps most of his fellow meathead friends that underneath the mohowk and the bravado lies the heart of a really sweet, decent guy," Rachel said, "Or at least he once was. I like to believe that the macho, womanizing attitude is just a façade. I take it he's set his sights on you?"

"It would seem," Lucy said with a huff.

"Well, I wish you luck with that," Rachel said, "He's not especially known for stopping before he gets what he wants from you."

"Yeah, well," Lucy sneered, "That will be his problem, because that is _so_ not happening."

"You wouldn't be the first girl to say that only to be proven wrong later," Tina said.

Lucy and Rachel looked at each other, both bore similar inquisitive looks. They both redirected their attention to the girl across from them. "Um, Tina?" Rachel said.

She looked up from her food to see them waiting expectantly, "I'm not talking about _me_," she said quickly, "I kissed him once but this was back at summer camp. I think we were nine or maybe ten, but that was it." They were still staring at her. Tina blushed and smiled, "I'm not saying it wouldn't be _tempting _if he was into me…"

"Tina!" Rachel said.

"I didn't say I would do it," Tina said, "I just said it would be tempting. I mean have you seen him? Besides, you're one to talk. You and Finn…"

"Finn and I are…"

"Can we not do… this?" Lucy interrupted suddenly, "Can three girls get together and not devolve into gossiping about boys? I like to avoid being a stereotype as much as I can." Lucy may have been okay with just being friends with Rachel, she did seem to be as straight as they come, but that didn't mean she was interested in hearing the details of hers and Finn's sex life no matter how much or how little of it there may be, and Rachel was prone to over sharing sometimes. "Drama Club, right? You guys were talking about a list. Into the Woods wasn't on it, I hope? That could be pushing it since that show has a huge cast and we currently only have three members."

"No," Rachel said, "Tina and I were just discussing Sondheim and got onto the subject of which shows we've seen. I'd initially suggested West Side Story as you heard. Maria is a dream role for me. I think with some work Finn could be a wonderful Tony." Rachel smiled as that image played in her head.

Lucy shot a glance at Tina who was looking back at her with the same incredulous look. Lucy said, "Uh, Rach?"

"Yes, Lucy?"

"Doesn't Tony…" she said not quite sure how to point this out to her, "and well, pretty much every part in West Side Story… require kind of a lot of dancing?"

"Yes," Rachel said, "and I'm aware of his less than stellar coordination."

"Honey, less than stellar doesn't even begin to cover it," Lucy said, "Less than a day ago he managed to trip over nothing and send himself and two others toppling to the ground. He's awful, Rach. If we had a year to train him, he might be a decent Indio or something." Rachel looked to the ground her lips tightening against her teeth. "It's not the end of the world that your boyfriend can't dance. He's just not going to be your Tony."

"Perhaps you should be Maria, then," Rachel said looking at Lucy.

"You don't want to be Maria if Finn can't be your Tony? You're aware that he's almost _certainly_ not going to be able to follow you to Broadway, right?"

"He just…" Rachel sighed, "You've already seen how he gets and you aren't even another boy. You aren't a threat to him like that." Once again, she'd accepted that Rachel was straight but that didn't mean that things like that didn't hurt to hear. "He would be forced to watch me kiss someone else."

"Maybe we could get Kurt to play Tony," Tina suggested, "Finn couldn't be threatened by Kurt, right?"

"Kurt play Tony?" Rachel said, "Have you ever in your life heard Kurt sing a low note?"

"Yeah," Tina said, "You're right, bad idea."

"And besides," Lucy said, "Wasn't the point of this club to get away from Kurt and Mercedes and their snarky, self-righteous bullshit? You know what? We're doing this backwards."

"What do you mean?" Tina asked.

"We're trying to pick a story and fill it with the people we know," Lucy said, "We need to do a membership drive and see who we have available to us and then pick a show accordingly. As much as I know you want to do West Side Story, it's going to be tough because it means an entire cast of talented dancers. Speaking of which, I could ask Brittany."

Tina spoke up and said, "Artie said he would he'd help. I mean, unless we do Rocky Horror there's probably not much he could do on stage, but he's in the AV Club so he can run the sound and lights."

"Oh, Rocky Horror," Rachel said with a smile.

"Rachel, no," Lucy called her down.

"What? Rachel asked.

"Flamboyant bi-sexual transvestite who spends most of the show in women's lingerie," Lucy explained, "know any guys in this school that would be willing to play that role?"

"Right, right," she said absently, "Membership drive… Lucy, how determined would you say that Noah was to get you to be with him?"

"Rachel…"

"I'm not suggesting you actually sleep with him," Rachel quickly explained, "I just thought, maybe you could drop hints that being in Drama Club wouldn't hurt his chances. It's not, strictly speaking, a lie. It just won't help his chances either."

Lucy sighed once more. "Can we save that option for if we determine that we _really_ need him for something and there's no other way? I'd really rather not be any closer to him than I have to be at any given time."

"Sounds reasonable," Rachel said.

"So, uh," Tina said, "Are we for sure quitting Glee Club?"

"That's your decision," Lucy said, "I never joined in the first place and don't feel terribly compelled to do so, but we won't force you to choose if you still want to do both. Same goes for you Rachel."

"Well, I've not fully made up my mind for certain whether or not I'm quitting for sure," Rachel said, "but I have decided to let them sweat it out over the weekend. I'll not be attending practice tomorrow afternoon. You can tell them what I said or not if you choose to go."

"Okay," Tina said, "I don't know if I'm going tomorrow or not either but I definitely have to run right now. I need to hit my locker and my next class is on the third floor, so I have to go. I'll text you guys later if I think of any other recruits."

"Later Tina," Lucy said.

"I guess that we should probably start heading to class as well," Rachel said.

"One second," Lucy said.

"What's the matter?" Rachel asked.

Lucy held up one finger waiting until she heard the heavy wooden door to the auditorium open and close. "Look me in the eyes, Rachel, and tell me again how you're not in any AP classes because you're more focused on the arts than academics. Tell me that it has nothing to do with you deliberately holding yourself back for Finn." Rachel's eyes dropped to her shoes almost immediately which was all the answer Lucy needed. "Jesus Christ, Rachel! What the hell?"

Rachel took a breath and said, "It's just so much easier to tutor him if we have the same curriculum."

"Oh my God," Lucy said, "Okay, that's it. We're going to the damn guidance councilor's office if I have to drag you there."

"Lucy, it's not a big deal," Rachel insisted.

"It is a big deal," Lucy countered, "First you're stunting yourself academically taking classes that are beneath you so that you can make sure that _he_ does well, then you're talking about giving up the lead in the show because he can't be a big boy and deal with the fact that acting will require you to occasionally kiss other people but that it doesn't mean anything. How long do I let you keep giving up on everything you want for him before I, as your friend, say something about it?"

"You know what? It's my life," Rachel said suddenly very forcefully, "and it's my relationship. After only three days of knowing me, you don't have any say in how I conduct either, so if you can't be happy for me and support me in my decisions then I'll ask you kindly to butt out!"

And with that, Rachel turned on her heel and was gone. Lucy called after her but to no avail. Two diva storm outs in less than 24 hours, she wondered if that was a record and then she wondered if that was even par for the course. Rachel was right about that, they had only been friends for three days. She didn't really know anything about her and Finn's relationship. On the surface it looked tremendously unhealthy… honestly it looked like he was using her to keep his grades up, but maybe there was more to it than that. She was probably completely overstepping.

Lucy jogged quickly up the aisle and out into the hallway to catch up with Rachel but she was nowhere to be seen and there were too many students already coming back from lunch to tell which footsteps were hers. She returned to the auditorium to pack up the blanket and the food Rachel had stormed off and left. She put them in the wings figuring Rachel would be back after it when she cooled off. Ultimately Lucy figured that was probably for the best; give Rachel time to cool off. She pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her book bag. On it she wrote, "I'm sorry. Text me when you're ready." She left it with the blanket and the food containers.

**X**

Rachel didn't cool off that night or rather she didn't text Lucy that night. She hadn't necessarily expected her to, per se, but she had been hoping she would. She didn't think too much of it really. She knew that Rachel had a very full after school schedule with dance classes and voice lessons and whatever else she and her dads got up to. For all Lucy knew they'd gotten swept up in re-enacting some Disney classic movie. She called Brittany and they'd talked for a while about nothing in particular. She friended Tina on Facebook and they'd chatted for a bit. Lucy asked if she'd heard from Rachel, she hadn't. Eventually she curled up on her bed with a book and wound up falling asleep rather early.

She woke up at 5:10 the next morning and lay there for the next ten minutes trying to go back to sleep without any success. She reluctantly got up and pulled on some workout clothes to go out into the garage and give her uncle's heavy bag a beating. When Uncle Derek appeared next to her without her even noticing, it scared the hell out of her and she had fight hard against her impulse to attack. "Not exactly the wisest idea, sneaking up on someone like that, Uncle D."

"I wasn't actually _trying_ to," he said, "You were just off in your own little world there."

"Sorry," she said settling down onto a bench against the garage wall.

"Something on your mind, Lucy Lu?"

"Not really," Lucy said, "Got into this stupid argument with my friend yesterday, completely my fault. She's... I was really hoping we'd have talked it out by now."

"This is the new friend?" He asked, "The new old friend. The one you knew when you were little?"

"Rachel," Lucy confirmed nodding her head.

"Is that Rachel _Berry_?" Derek asked.

Lucy sighed internally bracing herself for a lecture. "Yeah, that's her."

"I know her dad...or one of them, I guess," he said, "He took out your Aunt Caroline's gallbladder out last year. Good guy."

"I...really? You think he's a good guy?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah, why? Don't you?" Derek settled down on the bench next to Lucy.

"I think he's _great_," Lucy said, "I just have very clear memories of you listening and nodding along while my dad went on and on about homosexuals and Jews and liberals and… he's all three."

"I was raised to believe that it's rude to argue over the dinner table, especially when you're a guest in someone else's home," Derek said, "Plus, arguing with your dad was kind of pointless anyway."

"So... you're okay with it? With them?"

"Lucy, I was raised to believe the same thing you were, but you work in Family Law for a couple of years and you learn pretty quickly that any child that has a parent that loves them and wants to take care them is doing pretty good. A kid that has two is just all the better off. Bickering over gender and whether or not they're married...that's just politicking." Lucy smiled at him."The Reign of Russell is over," he declared loudly, "People are free to have their own thoughts and opinions again. I _don't_ know where your mom or Aunt Caroline are going to come down on the issue but I can tell you this, as long as I'm making the mortgage payments on this house, your friend is always welcome here. Okay?"

"Okay," she smiled.

"So I got an interesting call from your school yesterday," he said.

"They called _you_?"

"They called the house," he clarified, "I just so happened to be there. So you're fighting at school?"

"Yeah, I know. It was really stupid," Lucy said, "Like even more stupid than you think. If you'd seen the size of the guy..."

"Guy?" Derek repeated as surprise overtook his face, "You got in a fight at school with a guy? Did he hurt you?"

Lucy shook her head. "I didn't give him the chance. I put him down too fast."

"No, I mean what precipitated the fight? I assume you didn't just pick a fight with some big _guy_ for no reason, right?"

"Oh, yeah, no," Lucy said, "He hurt Rachel."

"Did he hit her?"

"He threw a 30 ounce slushie in her face," she said, "which apparently a weekly occurrence for her."

"And the school doesn't do anything about it?" Derek asked.

"Apparently the kids are all too scared to do anything about it for fear of retaliation. The administrators of the school aren't exactly paragons of bravery and upright citizenry."

Derek sighed, "That's...that...that sucks. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. In the meantime, no more fighting at school. Stand up for your friends with your words not you fists. Promise me that and this stays between us."

"I promise," Lucy said.

"Now I gotta get to work," he said, "I'd hug you but you're all sweaty, so I owe you one."

"Alright, love you Uncle D."

"Love you Lucy Lu."

Deciding that Uncle Derek's heavy bag had suffered enough, Lucy went back in the house, showered, and dressed in ragged jeans, sneakers and a loose t-shirt bearing the image of Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. It was still only 6:30 and she wasn't even going to think about going to school for another hour. Instead she went to get coffee at seemingly the only place in Lima to get a decent cup, a place called The Lima Bean. She picked up her order and drove quickly to the Berry house hoping that she wasn't being too presumptuous just showing up unannounced.

She knocked on the front door which was quickly answered by a surprised looking Leroy. She held up her drink carrier and said, "I come bearing coffee," Lucy said. Surprise was quickly replaced by a smile and a silent invitation to come in. Leroy led her into the kitchen when Hiram was seated at the counter. "Good morning, Hiram," Lucy said.

He turned around on the stood he was seated at with a similar look to the one Leroy had previously, "Well, good morning, Lucy," he said, "What a pleasant surprise."

"Thanks," she said setting the drink carrier on the counter, "Coffee?"

"Uh, yes, please," Hiram said, "We'll relieve you of two of those. If you would, put two spoons of sugar and a splash of the soy milk from the fridge in one of them and take it to her highness upstairs and hopefully between that, a good night's sleep, and her morning workout, she'll be out of whatever funk she was in last night."

"My fault I'm afraid," Lucy confessed as she flavored Rachel's coffee, "We had a fight. I said something stupid that I shouldn't have. That's why I'm here this morning, to make peace."

"That explains it," Leroy said. Lucy cast him a curious eye. "Movie night, last night Hiram picked Grease and Rachel spent the bulk of the movie muttering about how annoying Frenchy was. Me thinks it was certain other best friend with dyed hair that she was truly upset with."

"I'd say you're right on the money," Lucy said, "Let's see if I can't mend some fences." She carefully carried hers and Rachel's coffees up the stairs and down the hall to Rachel's room. Lucy could hear the whir of Rachel's elliptical going on the other side. Her hands both occupied Lucy knocked with her foot.

"Come in," Rachel called from inside. Lucy adjusted her coffee and held it against herself with her left wrist. The heat of the coffee penetrated both the cup and her shirt easily, so she quickly twisted the doorknob open before taking the cup back in hand. She nudged the door open with a knee and was presently struck dumb by the sight of Rachel mid-workout. Clad in matching yellow headband, sports bra, and spandex running shorts, her hair tied in a ponytail as every exposed inch of her was cover in a light sheen of sweat. Lucy was vaguely aware that she was leering at her friend but couldn't stop. There were a lot of really good things to look at: face, neck shoulders, stomach, legs (oh God the legs!), boobs, butt (Jesus, Lucy stop!). She heard something that sounded like it was coming from a distance. "I'm sorry, what?" Lucy asked.

"I said what are you doing here," Rachel repeated with a smile on her face as she slowed her exercise to a stop.

"Oh," Lucy said finally remembering herself, "I, uh, peace offering?" She held up Rachel's coffee. "Two spoons of sugar and soy milk?"

Rachel smiled stepping off her elliptical grabbing a towel to wipe herself down. She stepped forward and accepted the cup with her free hand. "Thank you, Lucy," Rachel said, "It's very sweet of you."

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said yesterday," Lucy said, "I was out of line. I have no business telling you how to live your life and it's certainly not my place to tell you how to handle your relationship."

"It's fine," Rachel said after a sip of coffee, "There was nothing you said that I hadn't already thought myself. You were just being a friend and looking out for me, which I'm unaccustomed to, but grateful for."

"You're welcome, but it's still not my place to judge your relationship, especially since I know nothing about it."

"Are you busy tonight?" Rachel asked. "Do you want to do something?"

"Um, yeah, I told Brittany I'd hang out with her," Lucy said, "Do you and Finn not have plans? I would have guessed that you would be the type to insist on a standing Friday Night date."

"Oh, I most definitely am," Rachel confirmed, "and we will be doing something, although I don't know what. I was just going to bring you along so that you could see that while yes Finn does have his faults, as does everyone, he is a good boyfriend and though it could stand some work we have a solid relationship and perhaps he could get to know you and possibly get over his jealousy issues."

"Sounds like a solid plan," Lucy said even though she really had no interest in spending any more time with Finn Hudson than was necessary, "We'll have to do it another time. In the meantime, if you hurry and get cleaned up, I'll give you a ride to school." Rachel just smiled and headed into her en suite bathroom to do just that. Lucy set her coffee down next to Rachel's settled herself back onto Rachel's bed and tried to scrub her brain of the images of Rachel's sweaty workout body. She didn't need those thoughts haunting her all day.

Sadly, purging those thoughts only made room for images of what was going on just the other side of the bathroom wall. "You've got it bad, Lucy Lu," she said to herself, sighing and flopping back onto the bed.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: Fair warning, there is almost no Faberry in this chapter. If that's all you're here after, you may just want to skim this one. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy.**

**Chapter Six**

The girls managed to get through an entire school day without any drama for a change, which was nice. Rachel, Tina, and Lucy had lunch in the auditorium together again, but with no new developments in Drama Club they mostly just talked about whatever, movies, music, TV, books, et cetera. Rachel told them that she would have a proposal put together to present to Principal Figgins by Monday and asked Lucy to come with her to present it. Lucy thought it would be a better idea if Tina went in her place. Citing her recent trip there for disciplinary purposes, Lucy managed to convince Rachel that she was right… eventually.

Lucy had exactly no luck purging the early morning images of Rachel out of her mind. She was distracted through the whole school day. Fortunately, the end of the first week of school usually wasn't too crucial and there were a couple of people that she had figured out that she could borrow notes from if she needed them.

After school she found Rachel to give her a ride home since she figured Finn would still be going to Glee practice and as far as she knew Rachel was still planning to skip. Lucy located Rachel in the auditorium (where else?) and they rode to Rachel's house as Lucy drove and Rachel sang along to music on her iPod. She dropped Rachel off with a promise that they would hang out later in the weekend.

When Lucy made it home there was a large moving truck parked at the house across the street. It had been empty since before Lucy and her mom had moved in. It had actually been empty for most of a year, according to Aunt Caroline. The previous owners were a family named Hart who had been foreclosed on when the housing market had gone to hell, Aunt Caroline and Uncle Derek weren't sure what had become of them but they were definitely long gone now. Lucy's mom had actually been looking at buying it when the divorce settlement came through. So much for that idea now.

She parked on the street as per usual and watched the house for any signs of life. She saw the shadow of somebody or possibly a couple of somebodies walking back and forth across the front window. She got out of the car and slowly made her way across the road which almost never had any traffic to speak of.

Just as she stepped onto the driveway, a guy walked out of the door into the open two car garage. He was kind of short… for a guy anyway, with a mop of curly dark hair and a big smile on his face. He was wearing faded jeans, sneakers, a white t-shirt, and sunglasses. As Lucy approached she could see that he had muscular arms and shoulders. "Hey," she said, "you the new neighbor… or just a mover?"

He chuckled slightly, "New neighbor," he said quickly wiping he hand on his pants leg before extending it out to her, "The name's Blaine."

"Lucy," she said shaking his hand. His skin was soft, much softer than she'd been expecting. When she withdrew her hand she pointed over her shoulder, "I live across the street. I'm actually new here myself… or mostly, we lived here when I was in kindergarten and then moved back this summer."

"Where'd you live in between?" Blaine asked.

"Bellville," Lucy replied, "Where are you from?"

"Westerville," he said, "My dad transferred to OSU's Lima Campus. He's a History professor. It's… it's just me and him."

When he said that, his bushy eyebrows lifted from behind his shades momentarily and Lucy caught just a glimpse of something that she wasn't sure she saw. "Big house for just the two of you," Lucy said pushing her own glasses up.

"Apparently he got a deal on it," Blaine said smiling, "I'm trying to get him to let me turn one of the extra bedrooms into a recording studio."

"Oh dear God, don't let my friend Rachel hear you say that," Lucy said, "She'll want to come over all the time. She might actually just try moving into your recording studio now that I think about it."

"Really?" he asked. His eyebrows darted up again and this time Lucy was sure she saw what she thought. Blaine had stitches above his right eye. "Aspiring singer I take it?"

"Who?" Lucy said all thoughts of their previous conversation gone. There was nothing about Blaine that suggested that he was a fighter. He posture was relaxed, his body language was open, he smiled a lot, his hands didn't show any evidence of having ever once hitting someone himself, nor did he seem to have any sort of defensive wounds. To her that added to someone hitting Blaine without fighting back, and her mind couldn't help but immediately jump back to her dad, his tendency to fly off the handle, and what might have happened had he been less concerned about appearances or more drunk.

"Your friend?" Blaine said, "She wants to be a singer?"

"Oh, yeah," Lucy said, "Or well, she wants to be on Broadway."

"That's awesome," he said his already big smile growing even impossibly bigger, "You think she'll make it? Does she have the chops?"

"I honestly have no idea what it takes to make it on Broadway," Lucy said, "but Rachel is the single most talented, focused, determined person I've met, so I wouldn't bet against her." She paused only a moment before speaking again, "Do you want something to drink? Moving can be draining, I know."

"Ah, I should probably get back to this," he said pointing at the truck.

"It'll wait ten or fifteen minutes," Lucy said dialing up the charm slightly, "Unless my Uncle Derek came home for lunch and drank it all, then there is a pitcher of my Aunt Caroline's homemade lemonade in there with our names on it."

He hummed and said, "You drive a hard bargain, Lucy, but you clearly you know the way to a man's heart. Let me just go tell my dad where I'm going. I'll be right back." He took off quickly back up the driveway to the house and Lucy quietly hoped that she was remembering correctly about the lemonade. She wanted to get Blaine away from his house long enough figure out some way of asking about the stitches, to make sure he was safe in his house. She hadn't the faintest clue what she would do if he wasn't… maybe take him to the Berries'. He came back a minute later saying, "I am cleared for a fifteen minute break, conditional upon me bringing him back a glass." He held up a travel mug that he was carrying.

"I think we can swing that," Lucy said. They quickly crossed the street Lucy leading the way. She stopped briefly at her car to grab her book bag before continuing on up the drive and into the house. "Aunt Caroline," Lucy called out, "I'm home."

"I'll be out in a minute," she replied from down the hallway to the left.

"We have company," Lucy replied.

"Okay, dear."

"The kitchen's through here," Lucy said leading them straight ahead. They walked through the high ceilinged family room and hung a right into the spacious off-white kitchen. Lucy pointed to the four seater breakfast bar and said, "Have a seat."

"This is a nice place," Blaine said taking off his sunglasses, "You live here with your aunt and uncle, then?"

"It's their house," Lucy said into the refrigerator lifting the heavy glass picture with both hands, "My mom and I are staying with them… while…" She turned back to see him and along with the stitches he clearly had the remnants of a black eye.

"It's okay," Blaine said, "You can ask about it. It's not like it's some huge secret that I got into a fight."

"But you didn't fight back," Lucy said retrieving and filling a pair of glasses with lemonade.

"What makes say that?"

"Let's just say that I know a thing or two about fighting," she replied offering him a glass which he accepted with a smile, "and you didn't, which suggests not so much fighting as it does abuse."

"It's not my dad," he said, "if that's what you're thinking."

"Your mom?"

"Gone," was all he said.

"Oh, wow, I'm sorry. I'm just stepping in it all over the place here, aren't I?"

"It's alright," he said, "It was a long time ago and I've dealt with it. I _was_ in a fight, although not much of one since there was four of them against one of me, a bunch of idiot football players decided they didn't like me and were going to show me just how much they didn't."

"Do you know why they did it?" Lucy asked. "You didn't like steal all their girlfriends with your dreamy eyes or anything, did you?"

Blaine smiled and looked down to the counter. "Not hardly, not even close," he said.

"Oh," Lucy said, "hmm." Then in a second realization struck her, "Oh! You…" She looked up past him to see if anyone else was around and when she spoke again it was just above a whisper, "You got gay bashed." He tilted his head slightly to the right and cast his glance sideways, pointedly not denying it. "Does your dad know?"

"My family knows," Blaine said, "I was out at my old school, but I think I may try laying low here. I understand Lima doesn't have the best reputation for being gay friendly."

"You want to crawl back into the closet?"

"Not exactly," Blaine said, "Maybe just make it not so obvious. Keep my head down, don't bring it up in a group setting. Just until I get the lay of the land, figure out who plays for my team, who's an ally. I'm guessing since you haven't asked me to leave that I've found one."

"Not exactly." The words left Lucy's mouth before she could stop them. She was mere seconds away from spilling and she had not the faintest clue why she was telling this guy whom she'd just met not fifteen minutes ago. It was something about his eyes and his smile. He seemed like he had a kind soul. He looked at her with what had to be the most confused look she'd ever seen from anyone. She needed to speak again, not just for Blaine's sake but for hers as well. She was quickly losing her courage. "I'm… _not_… out," she said at last.

Because her life had the remarkable propensity for playing out clichés, barely a second after Lucy dropped that bomb her aunt called out, "Luce?"

"In the kitchen," she called back giving Blaine an apologetic look. She walked around the breakfast bar to stand next to Blaine who stood to meet Caroline as she walked into the room. "Blaine, this is my aunt, Caroline Dennison. Aunt Caroline, this is Blaine. Blaine, uh…"

"Oh," he said, "Anderson. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you," Caroline said.

"Blaine and his dad are moving in across the street," Lucy said.

"Oh yes? I saw the truck in the driveway," Caroline said, "How is the move going?"

"We've got all the big stuff done," Blaine explained, "Now we just have a bunch of boxes, which I should probably be getting back to."

"You don't have to rush off," Caroline said.

"I'm afraid I do," Blaine said, "We're supposed to drop off the truck by 5:30 and it's almost 4:00 now."

"Finish your lemonade. Recharge your batteries," Caroline said, "Then Lucy and I will come help unload the truck. That way you'll have plenty of time. Right, Lucy?"

"Absolutely," Lucy said. Truthfully, between her early morning conversation with her Uncle Derek and now this, she wasn't entirely sure she hadn't woken up in a parallel universe. Aunt Caroline was always courteous, of course, but to volunteer to go help move boxes… that was weird.

They talked a bit more as Blaine and Lucy had their drinks. Blaine was starting McKinley on Monday and would be a sophomore. He was apparently very into the arts which he was disappointed to hear there wasn't much of at his new school, although Lucy did mention Drama Club which Blaine said he was definitely interested in. Caroline volunteered Lucy to show him around the school next week which she agreed to do despite having only been there a week herself.

Blaine finished drinking and loaded up the travel mug for his dad to get back to work. Caroline asked Lucy to stay back for just a moment with her, promising Blaine that they'd be over directly. When he was gone, she looked at Lucy and said, "Wow! Lucy, good work, you roped him quickly. Not even fully moved in yet."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Lucy said.

"No, _get _ahead of yourself and get ahead of the line that's going to form around that boy," Caroline said, "He's going to be fighting them off with a stick. Witty, charming, handsome, polite… if I were twenty years younger…"

"Aunt Caroline!" Lucy admonished, "Go get changed so we can get over there to help."

She did and they went to help. They introduced themselves to Blaine's father Thomas and between the four of them they had all the boxes moved, the truck emptied by just after 4:30. Thomas went to return the truck and Caroline volunteered to follow him in her car to bring him back home, throwing a knowing look at Lucy before she left.

"So my aunt thinks we're dating now," Lucy said, "Or will be soon at any rate."

"We can let them if you want," Blaine said, "Think that, I mean."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean that," Blaine said clearing enough boxes off the couch for them to have room to sit, "in the three seconds I had to read your expression after you told me before Caroline showed up, I got the sense that you aren't really anywhere close to ready to tell you family or friends." Lucy shook her head quickly answering that. "If you wanted to, we could spend a sufficient amount of time with one another that would make people who don't know better think we were dating." Lucy studied him, unspeaking. "Unless there's already someone that that would cause problems with."

With a sad sigh, Lucy said, "The only 'someone' in my life right now is very straight."

"That sucks," Blaine said.

"Yeah," Lucy confirmed, "I just don't know about perpetrating this huge lie to everyone."

"Don't think about it like that," he said, "I'm not suggesting we try to sell some huge epic romance where we sing songs to one another and spend hours making out in school. I'm just suggesting that we stand close to one another in the hallways and smile at one another, that we occasionally go for coffee together or eat dinner somewhere people might see us, nothing that we wouldn't do as friends, and let everyone make the wrong assumptions about us and not correct them… not until we're ready anyway." Once again Lucy stood looking studiously at him. "I might also need a ride to school since I don't have a car."

Lucy's face broke and she laughed at him. After a minute or so she composed herself, "The ride is no problem," she said, "The rest of it I'll think about."

"Fair enough, big plans tonight?" he asked changing the subject.

"There's this party," Lucy said somewhat sheepishly, "I'd invite you but I'm actually going as someone's guest."

"Oh that's fine," Blaine said, "I'm way too tired after moving to go to a party, but I'm curious, this someone who's taking you to a party, is this the straight someone?"

Lucy smiled and shook her head, "No, it's my friend Brittany," she explained, "We have dance class together and… well we kind of made out once this summer. She was actually my first kiss, or my first with a girl, but I don't really know what that means, to me or to her."

"You could ask," he said. This time he was expecting the stare that came and continued almost immediately, "If your straight someone isn't an option, then you probably ought to try to start moving on before you get in too deep, right? So if Brittany's interested and if you're interested in her…"

**X**

An exhausted Lucy dragged herself back across the street, texting Brittany as she went. _What time is the party tonight?_ She was just inside the front door when Brittany's response came. _At like 8, I was thinking about getting there around 9:30. That cool?_ Lucy walked down the hall to her room before replying. _Sounds great. Had an early morning so I'm gonna take a nap right now. If I'm not to ur house by 8:30 call me. _Lucy set her phone down to kick off her shoes and shed her jeans. Just as she was about to crawl into bed, her phone chimed again. _You could come over and we could nap together and be all snuggly_. Lucy sighed and fell into bed. _Tempting, but I already took my pants off so… not leaving._

_How crazy, I'm not wearing pants either… or a shirt… or anything else. : )_

_Um, why are you naked in the middle of the day?_

Brittany's reply came not as a text but a picture message. In it, Brittany was indeed naked sitting in a tub full of water with her hair tied up in a messy bun on the top of her head. Brittany was mugging for the camera with some ridiculous face. The blurry outline of her rosy pink nipples could be made out beneath the surface of the water. Lucy blushed but didn't stop looking. Eventually she noticed the caption, _Relaxing after a long day of cheerleading._ As Lucy was examining the picture another message came in. _And you can totally see my boobs there, oops, didn't mean to flash you. Whatev I look hot._

_Always._ Lucy texted back before drifting off to sleep.

The next thing Lucy realized Brittany was in bed with her, kissing her intensely… and she was naked and wet almost like she had just climbed out of the bath and into Lucy's bed. How had Brittany gotten across town naked? Suddenly Brittany was pressing against her caressing one of Lucy's bare breasts and that question mattered a whole lot less. Lucy pressed back against her and it felt wonderful, euphoric even. It was quite literally like nothing she'd ever felt before.

Brittany's leg hit her just right and Lucy began to tremble. Her eyes fluttered shut and she rasped out Brittany's name. Brittany rocked hard into her and she moaned again. Lucy eventually remembered that she had hands and that if called upon to do something, they would work. She placed them midway down Brittany's back. The touch of bare, smooth, flawless, wet skin only heightened her excitement. She guided her hands down Brittany's back to rest on slim hips. With this leverage she pulled down on Brittany while pressing herself up. "Lu," Brittany said in a breathy whisper as the girls slowly rocked their hips together.

Lucy could feel something building inside her. She wasn't completely sheltered, she knew _in theory_ what an orgasm was. She'd just never had one until now. He breathing was becoming ragged and though she wanted to she couldn't keep her eyes open. "Br-Brittany," she moaned.

"Lucy Quinn Fabray," a sharp voice cut through lust clouded mind, "if you don't stop calling me the wrong girl's name, I swear I'm going to break up with you." It was Rachel, and they weren't at Lucy's… and they most certainly weren't naked. They were in Rachel's bed at her house and Rachel was lying with her head in Lucy's very clothed lap watching something on Rachel's television. Lucy was confused and annoyed and… whatever the girl equivalent blue balls was, she was that too.

It was then, and strangely enough _only_ then, that Lucy realized that she was dreaming, but it wasn't like in the movies where you realize you're dreaming and you suddenly sit bolt upright in bed. No, Lucy was left to linger in what would be an otherwise perfectly wonderful dream where she and Rachel were apparently together. It figured that her subconscious could manage to take something that she really, really wanted and find a way to make it annoy her. The ultimate kicker was that she had so little idea about what she was actually doing that she couldn't even begin to formulate a plan as to move things in that direction with Dream Rachel. Even in her dreams, Lucy had absolutely no game.

She finally woke up when her alarm started going off to a severe ache between her legs and not much clue as to how to fix it. Despite her recent hard left away from everything involving the manner in which she was raised and her own emerging sexuality, Lucy was still pretty repressed about sexuality (or at least she was in her waking life) and was more or less clueless about the mechanics of sex. Thus she didn't really know how to fix that burning ache… at least not the way she really wanted to, anyway. She knew how to take a cold shower.

**X**

Forty five minutes later she was freshly showered and standing on the porch of The Pierce Household. After hesitating for a couple of minutes, she raised a shaky hand to ring the doorbell. Less than two minutes later the heavy wooden door before her was yanked open. Behind it was Brittany, a smile spreading across her face standing there in a thin white tank top, her nipples obviously poking through, and a pair red plaid, men's boxers. "Hey, Lu!"

"Hey Britt," Lucy managed to reply quietly wondering if she was going to need _another_ cold shower.

Without warning or preamble, Brittany yanked Lucy into the house and into a hug. "I'm so glad you're here," Brittany gushed, "Tonight's going to be so much fun." Lucy hugged back and tried very hard not to think about the feel of Brittany's firm breasts pressed into hers or the momentarily implacable scent of Brittany's skin.

"Thanks for inviting me," Lucy said as she mentally cursed Blaine for even putting the idea of Brittany into her head. This whole night was going to be insanely awkward now, because she was never going to be able to look at Brittany as just her friend anymore. Then again at least Brittany was an option for her, unlike certain other girls she's been fixated on lately.

Brittany led them to her room down the hallway. Lucy couldn't help but watch the sway of her hips as they went. Brittany looked back and smiled at the guilty look on Lucy's face when Brittany caught her staring. Brittany started purposefully swaying her hips even more after that and Lucy laughed silently to herself. At least she wasn't mad about it, not that Lucy expected her to be. Brittany had always been very comfortable with herself sexually. It's why Lucy had kissed her all those months ago… well one of the reasons anyway.

"So you wanna see the dress I think you should wear?" Brittany said digging into her closet without waiting for a reply. She shoved things one way and the other before withdrawing very short, very tight blue dress. It had a wide neckline and long, loose sleeves. It was very retro which Lucy liked but it was really short… it would have been short on Brittany and Lucy was taller than her so it may well have been indecently short on Lucy. "You wanna go try it on?" Brittany asked.

"I don't know, Britt," Lucy said softly.

"Just try it on," Brittany said, "If you don't like it, we'll find something else, but I think you'll look super hot in it."

Lucy sighed and agreed. Brittany showed her where the bathroom was. She changed out of her clothes and into the dress quickly. As suspected it was very short on her just barely covering her butt and clinging to her like skin. She knew that Brittany (and probably every guy at the party) would say that she looked hot, but the stupid, insecure fat girl inside of her didn't like it, thought people would see all the million little imperfections that she still saw in herself.

She exited the bathroom and went back to Brittany's room. She tugged the bottom hem of the dress down, willing the dress to be even a quarter of an inch longer. She knocked on the door and opened it when Brittany told her to come in. Brittany smiled at her and said, "I knew you'd look hot in it, but you can't wear your bra under it. Here," Brittany moved to her dresser and pulled open a drawer, "I've got a bustier in here somewhere. We're about the same size right?" Lucy nodded. "Here," Brittany said finally producing the black garment, "You'll probably need help putting it on."

The thought of disrobing in front of Brittany brought images from her dream back to the forefront of Lucy's mind and she just stood there like the proverbial deer in the headlights. "Lu, are you okay?" Brittany asked, "You've been kinda quiet since you got here, quieter than usual even. Is something wrong? Did I do something?"

Lucy shook her head and turned to face the wall as she let the top of the dress down. Just as she pulled her arms free from the sleeves, she felt Brittany's hands move to the clasp of her bra and begin to undo it. "I-It's stupid," Lucy said.

"If something's bothering you then it's totally _not_ stupid," Brittany said, "Just tell me."

Lucy flung her bra to the floor as Brittany brought the bustier around her. Lucy adjusted it and herself until she felt comfortable in it… or as comfortable as could be expected anyway, and Brittany began fastening it up the back. "I, um… earlier, during my nap, I sort of had a dream about you."

"Like a sex dream?" Brittany asked excitedly as she finished fastening Lucy in.

Lucy pulled on one sleeve then the other and got the dress refastened and situated how she liked it before turning back around to see an excited, knowing smile on Brittany's face. "Yes," she said, "It was a sex dream."

"Was it hot?" Brittany asked, "Did I make you cum?"

Lucy's face turned bright red instantly and she began chuckling at both her own discomfort in the situation and Brittany's unabashed pride at the actions of her dream-self. She pinched her eyes shut for a moment before saying, "It was very hot, probably the hottest thing I've ever seen or done and you were well on your way to making me…" Lucy was uncomfortable with Brittany's choice of words and the word orgasm sounded too clinical, so she settled on saying, "release, but the dream ended before I could."

"Did you finish yourself when you woke up?" Brittany asked.

Lucy bit her bottom lip and looked down, "I, um, I don't know how," she said bashfully.

"Oh, well, I can show you how," Brittany said. She hooked her thumbs into the boxers she was wearing and pushed them off her hips letting them drop to the floor. Underneath she was wearing a pair of lacy red panties that didn't leave much to the imagination. "Sit down on the foot of the bed and just do what I do," she said moving to the head of her bed.

Lucy was stunned into silence at the absolute casualness with which Brittany was saying all of this. Lucy was had most certainly not been raised in a world where friends just casually offered to teach friends how to masturbate, hell she hadn't been raised in a world where it was even okay to masturbate, let alone doing it in the same room in the same bed as a friend who was also masturbating. The thing that stunned Lucy the most though, was that she was completely certain this wasn't an attempt at seduction on Brittany's part. In Brittany mind, she was just trying to pass along knowledge to a friend so that she could take care of herself and her urges. "I can't do that with you, Britt," she said then clarified, "or with anyone. I'm… I'm just not ready."

"Oh, okay," Brittany said standing back up, "Did you want some tights to wear under the dress?"

Lucy had to stifle a laugh at how quickly and easily she changed the subject, "Yes, please," she said.

"Ooooh! How do you feel about fishnets? It'll make your legs look super hot," Brittany said, "Everybody will be looking at you, guys, girls, everybody."

Lucy smiled and said, "Bring 'em on."

**A/N: So I'm going to repeat that Faberry/Brittana are endgame here but we are a long way from the end. In fact we've really, barely only begun and there will be a good deal of other pairings between then and now. Fierce is one of them. If anyone doesn't like that… well, sorry, but it's my story.**

**I changed Blaine's age because there's just nothing about his character that lines up with him being a year younger than everyone that graduated this season. If anything he plays as older than them, but that could just him being an old soul. I'm endeavoring to give him some sense of a personality since the show seems deadest against that.**

**And one shiny Internet Award for whomever catches the hint about which character I wrote out in this chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: It's party time in Lima. I was going back and forth about whether or not to break POV and show Rachel without Lucy, but then I looked back and realize that I'd already done it back in Chapter Two, so problem solved. I don't know how often we'll be jumping over to Rachel's POV but the next two chapters with use it a lot. As always thanks to everyone who reviews/follows/favorites, also if you have thoughts or suggestions let me know. I may or may not use them but I always like to hear them.**

**Chapter Seven**

Rachel wasn't an especially big fan of parties, particularly the brand of party that was the tradition of Noah Puckerman. They almost invariably involved lots of drinking and activities that people who had been drinking thought were a good idea but those who hadn't generally knew to be otherwise, like streaking and drunk karaoke. They also tended to be populated almost exclusively by jocks and Cheerios, people who routinely bullied her in school. Oddly enough, away from school, they tended to just ignore her and go about their own business of getting disgustingly drunk and hooking up with each other. She often wondered why the same group of people who could be entirely indifferent to her privately felt the need to go out of their way to harass and torment her publically. Rachel suspected the answer was really rather simple… because they could.

She wasn't looking forward to _this_ party in particular since it would be the first one since the incident in the hallway on Wednesday, when Lucy had left David Karofsky lying in the floor in a heap. She was concerned about how the popular kids would react to her after that. She, personally, hadn't done it but she was the _reason_ that Lucy had done it and everyone knew that. Rachel had been on edge waiting for some form of retaliation or escalation for the last two days. So far it hadn't come.

Rachel greatly desired to beg off this party and perhaps invite Finn to the movies or bowling, both of which she knew he liked doing, but he was already annoyed with her for not telling him that she was bailing on Glee Club today and they'd already had one fight about it. He was also starting to develop some raging jealousy issues about Lucy and all the time that they spent together. He'd begun inviting her to spend lunch with him at the jock table and then when Rachel told him that he already had plans with Lucy, Finn would get petulant and whiney. Prior to this week, Finn had never once invited her to the jock table before. Not that Rachel had any desire to eat anywhere near those meatheads and have choice in diet questioned and mocked as they almost certainly would be.

Rachel heard a horn honking outside the house. She glanced out the window to see Finn's truck idling on the street. She sighed to herself before grabbing her bag and making her way out of her room and down the stairs. She stopped at the entrance to the den to find her fathers sitting together on the couch. Daddy was watching something on TV, The Science Channel most likely, while Dad was going over essays from his classes. "Good evening, dear fathers," she said.

"Tell us again where you're going," Leroy said muting the television.

"A party at Noah Puckerman's house," Rachel said, "You have the number to his house phone as well as his mother's cell number. Yes, there will undoubtedly be drinking there as well many other unseemly activities, none of which will I be partaking of."

"And when will you be home?" Hiram asked looking up from the papers in his lap.

Finn's horn blew again just as Rachel was about to answer. She watched as both of her fathers' faces constricted in irritation. Rachel breathed out her annoyance and said, "No later than midnight."

"Good," Leroy said, "Now go see to your ungentlemanly caller, and remind him that we have a perfectly nice doorbell that gets our attention without bothering the whole neighborhood."

"I will," Rachel said.

"Have a good time, Little Star," Hiram said.

"Thank you," Rachel said, "I love you."

"Love you," they replied in unison.

Rachel walked out the door closing it gently behind her. Then she strode down the steps, along the walk, and down the driveway with determination. When she reached the truck, Finn was still sitting inside. Rachel yanked open the door and climbed in, slamming the door behind her. "Hey Babe!" he said clearly ignorant of the anger that plain for anyone to see.

"I wish that you wouldn't do that," Rachel said trying to maintain a level voice, her eyes fixed forward.

"Do what?" Finn asked.

"Honk your horn to announce your arrival," Rachel explained finally looking at him, "A gentleman would come up to the door and either knock or ring the doorbell."

"Rach, you know your dads scare the crap out of me. They hate me," he replied.

"They don't hate you," she replied immediately. They didn't hate him, but they certainly didn't like him. Neither did Lucy and now Rachel couldn't help but see why. It was one thing for her dads to not like her boyfriend; that was expected. She was their Little Star, their Princess. No one would ever be good enough for her in their eyes. But when Lucy all but said that she didn't approve… well that was harder to pass off or ignore. Your parents disapproving of your boyfriend was natural, but your best friend? Your _gay_ best friend at that? After all it wasn't even that she was jealous and wanted Finn, Lucy was gay. Plus, y'know, she had all those perfectly reasonable complaints about him. "My dads are big teddy bears and you'd know that if you took the time to find that out. They like you fine," she said getting herself back on track, "They would like you better if you wouldn't honk your horn when you come to pick me up… if you could be a bit more gentlemanly."

"Okay, babe, I'll try," he said.

Try? Walking up to the house and ringing the doorbell didn't seem like something that one should have to try at. You just did it. "I'd also rather you didn't call me 'babe' anymore, either."

"Oh, come on," he said with his lopsided grin, "That's just my cute little adorable pet name for you."

"It is neither cute nor adorable," Rachel countered, "And I am not your pet hence you shouldn't need a pet name for me."

Finn groaned and said, "Can we not do this? Can we just like leave the crazy at home for tonight and go enjoy the party?"

Rachel hated when he called her crazy but she also didn't want to be fighting with him anymore. She'd made her concerns known and he would either respect her wishes or they would revisit the subject another time. Tonight was supposed to be fun… although she still doubted that she was going to have that much actual fun. Finn would have fun and Rachel would enjoy spending time with him and then maybe he'd ease up on the jealous crap next week. "Okay," she said, "but don't ditch me the second we walk in the door please. I'm somewhat concerned about the reaction I'm going to get in light of recent events."

"Of course, babe."

Rachel rolled her eyes but said nothing.

They rode in silence but for the music playing over Finn's radio. The ten minute trip across town felt like much, much longer, but eventually they made it to Noah's house parking only a short walk down the street. The music had not yet reached unbearable volumes so they didn't actually hear it until they'd made it almost all the way to the house. The chorus of drunken idiots had not yet taken up residence on the front stoop so they were spared being yelled at as they came near.

Rachel glanced at her watch as they walked in and saw that it was 8:15. She knew that the party was due to start at 8:00 and she wondered if this was what was considered to be "fashionably late". Judging by the fact that there were only about twenty other people in the house including Puck, she assumed not. They made their way into the kitchen to find Noah perched on the counter, standing lord over the beer kegs holding a stack of red plastic cup obscenely between his legs. He was flanked on his left by Santana Lopez her face fixed with a scowl and on his right by another Cheerio, Megan Wooderson, a junior. Megan's little brother, Devin Wooderson, the starting center for the Titans along with four other boys were clustered nearby and partaking heavily of the kegs' contents. Within an hour they would be the chorus of drunken idiots out front.

"Bro!" Puck exclaimed as soon as he saw Finn. He handed off his stack of cups to Megan and hopped down off the counter to close the distance between them. "Karofsky and Azimio are downstairs getting the table set up. Beer Pong?"

"Dude, totally!" Finn said, "Rach, come on. You can be my good luck charm." He said that every time they'd been to one of these things, every time he said it as though he'd just thought it up. Rachel's record as good luck charm was spotty at best but her only other real options were to stay in the kitchen and get stared at or go back out into the main room and dance mostly by herself until some drunk guy made a pass at her or just went straight to trying to grope her so casual observer of a game of beer pong it was.

**X**

"So do you want me to drive?" Lucy offered, "I mean it's not a problem. I don't plan on drinking too much around a bunch of people I don't know." The truth was that Lucy had never had a drink in her life and wasn't sure she wanted to start. She'd seen what alcohol did to her father and knew she didn't want to be him. Her mother struggled with it as well although she wasn't sure if the cause of her mother's issues or if it was just another effect of the ugly rage monster that was Russell Fabray. Either way, booze didn't do either of her parents any good.

"It would be easier to just walk," Brittany said looking at Lucy's reflection in her vanity. Brittany was finishing up her make-up applying lip gloss, "Puck only lives like a couple of blocks over and we'd wind up walking most of a block anyway because of all the cars that are already there. I promise we'll be safe coming home. We can stay as late as we want until we sober up. We can even crash there if we need to."

"Pretty sure I'll call a cab before I do that," Lucy said, "but I don't mind walking. You ready to go?"

"Whenever you are," Brittany said popping up out of the chair. Lucy stood smiling at Brittany who was smiling back. Lucy wasn't sure if she was supposed to lead them out or not, but she didn't know how to get to Puck's house so she just stood there waiting. Brittany snaked her hand into Lucy's and lead them out into the hallway.

"Bye, Mom," Brittany called out as they walked past the family room.

"Bye, honey. Be safe. Call if you need a ride," her mom called back.

Once they were out the door, Lucy said, "Your mom knows where we're going?"

"Yeah," Brittany said, "I tell my mom everything."

"And she's okay with you going to a party where there's going to be drinking and… other things?"

"Well, I mean, I'm pretty sure she wishes I wouldn't, but she knows I'll sneak out and go anyway if she tries to stop me. She'd rather know where I am and know I'm safe," Brittany said.

"That's pretty cool of her," Lucy said, "If I told my mom that I was at a party, she'd probably flip out and try to ground me or something."

"She thinks you're at mine?" Brittany asked.

"She thinks… or well I guess, knows that I'm out with you," Lucy said, "I didn't say the word party so her powers of denial won't let her think I'm at one. I don't know if she thinks we're going to the movies or what, but yeah, she thinks I'm with you. She knows we won't be at your place so she won't call your mom."

"So she's kind of the opposite of my mom, then? She'd rather assume that you aren't going somewhere she doesn't want you to be than to know the truth."

"I guess so," Lucy said. They turned the corner and they could already see the line of cars parked along both sides of the road. Apparently everyone in the greater Lima area was going to be there tonight. "Big turn out?" Lucy asked.

"Hard to tell," Brittany said, "Usually at the beginning of the year everyone drives themselves to parties or at least comes with only one friend. As the year goes on people start riding together a lot more, so this could just be a normal night."

"This should be interesting," Lucy said, "I'm not used to dealing with a lot of people in one small house. I'm kind of claustrophobic."

"Does that mean you get freaked out around people?"

"In tight places," Lucy said, "Small rooms, places where there are too many people like this party is probably going to be."

"Okay, if you start to freak, just tell me and we'll go outside. There's lots of room in the back yard."

"Okay," Lucy said.

They came to a cross street and when they saw nothing was coming they headed to the next block. As soon as they crossed the street they heard the music coming from what must have been Puck's place, three houses up. "So you never told me," Brittany said, "What's the status between you and Rachel?"

"The status is friends," Lucy said rather definitively, "She's very committed to her boyfriend and I really don't want to try to come between them." Brittany gave her a sad smile. "Plus, I'm pretty sure she's ruler straight."

"Really?" Brittany said, "I thought with her having gay dads she'd be more open minded about sexy times."

"She's open minded," Lucy said, "I just don't think she feels anything for girls."

"Santana says that straight girls are like spaghetti noodles," Brittany said, "They're only straight until you get them wet."

"Oh my God," Lucy said blushing but at the same time chuckling in spite of herself. She was trying to think of something to say in response but nothing was coming and soon after they were to the front yard of what could only be Puck's house.

"WOOOOO! BRITTANY!" came a chorus of drunken male voices, followed quickly by, "WOOOOO! NEW GIRL!"

"PARTY!" Brittany shouted at them holding up her free hand above her head in a fist.

"PARTY!" they all shouted back fists likewise held aloft.

Brittany led them on towards the door, "Those are The Woo Guys," she explained, "They do this at like every party, get here early, get beered up, and shout all night long. They're like a welcoming committee." She guided them through the door and into the house. They drifted from one room to the next and Brittany was sure to point out how to get to the back yard. Eventually they made their way into the kitchen.

"Beer?" some guy said holding out a cup in front of Brittany.

"I'll get my own, thanks," she replied pushing past him. "You know the rules to drinking, right Lu?"

"I um…"

"Don't drink any open drink. Don't leave your drink unattended and if you do, don't drink it. Don't drink any mixed drink that you didn't either make yourself or watch being made," Brittany rattled off.

Lucy was nodding halfway through Brittany's speech, "Yeah, I know, and stay with your buddy," she said tightening her grip on Brittany's hand, "so you can watch each other."

"Totally," Brittany said taking a cup from off the stack holding it in Lucy's direction. "Want one?"

"Not right now," Lucy said.

"Okay," Brittany said with a smile.

She released Lucy's hand for the first time in almost twenty minutes to work the tap on one of the kegs and almost immediately Lucy felt markedly less safe without the hand in hers. She didn't know anyone here, didn't trust them, and felt a very acute sense that she didn't belong in this crowd. She was the outsider, the weirdo, the book nerd in a room full of football players and cheerleaders, one of whom she'd assaulted a couple of days ago and most of whom probably hated her. "On second thought…" Lucy said.

"You number your thoughts?" Brittany asked.

Lucy smiled at her and said, "Can I have a beer please?" Drinking to ease the tension, Lucy thought, like mother, like daughter. She pushed the thought away though because she had no plans on getting hammered like her mother often did. For her the cup was just a barrier, something physical to hold between herself and them… that and possibly a weapon. She feared that Rachel and her sense of drama might be rubbing off on her too much when she actually smiled a little at the thought of actually getting to throw a drink in someone's face.

Brittany handed her the first cup she filled and then grabbed and filled another for herself. Lucy took a sip off the beer and it tasted exactly what she imagined ice cold urine to taste like (not that she spent a lot of time thinking about that subject). She winced as it went down and she wondered how anyone could get excited at the prospect of consuming it in large quantities.

Brittany took a long drink off of hers and then looked to Lucy and said, "Wanna dance?"

**X**

In the more than two hours that they'd been there, Rachel had gone from being Beer Pong Good Luck Charm (which she apparently sucked at, since Finn and Noah had lost, badly) to being Call of Duty Good Luck Charm (which she had no idea her level of effectiveness since she didn't understand the point of the game). Also in that time she had watched Finn consume all or most of seven beers and while due to a combination of acquired tolerance and sheer mass, he wasn't falling down drunk, he was definitely intoxicated. His already clumsy hands were made worse due to lack of coordination and an increase in perspiration, he lost either his depth perception or his ability to control the volume because he started yelling things at her as though she were across the room rather than right next to him, and his breath stank… horribly. Every time he kissed her "for luck" be it on the mouth or the cheek, she had to fight the urge to gag. At one point she offered him a Life Saver that she'd thoughtfully brought with her, but he said he was fine. Eventually she just resorted to sticking the mint in his open mouth while he was distracted by the video game, but he promptly bit down on it, chewed it up, and swallowed it before it could do its job on his breath.

"I'm going to get some air," she said to Finn standing up from her spot next to him on the couch.

"Yeah, okay, babe," he said never looking away from the TV, "I'll be right here." She leaned down to kiss him on the temple and immediately after he cursed violently at the screen. Apparently she sucked as a Call of Duty Good Luck Charm as well. She went back up the stairs out of the basement which lead into the kitchen and out through the sliding glass back door.

The cool night air felt great after two hours in the house that was sweltering from too many bodies in too little space. The clean, fresh air free of the smell of beer and body odor was also a great change of pace. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply holding it for as long as possible before exhaling. Hours of annoyance and frustration washed off of her in moments. It was rather remarkable really. Her thoughts wandered to her friends, Lucy and Tina, wondering what they were doing tonight. She wished they were here just so that she'd have something to do, someone to talk to. She briefly considered calling them to see if they would come but it was already after 10 o'clock, closer to 10:30 even. She doubted either of them would want to get out so late, especially to come to a party that neither of them were really invited to.

Instead she just stood there enjoying the peacefulness of the back yard for a long while.

Eventually that peacefulness was interrupted by two loud, obnoxious guys coming outside and lighting up cigarettes. They were on the football team and they were both upperclassmen, but Rachel didn't remember their names. She wanted to say the taller one with the sandy blonde hair was named Jon something but she couldn't really recall for certain. As per the standard at parties, they looked at her long enough to realize who she was and promptly ignored her. "Man," the dark haired boy said, "Did you see Brittany and the new girl?"

"Shit," Jon replied, "Two hot chicks dancing together, you think I've looked at anything else tonight?" It occurred to Rachel that they were probably talking about Brittany and Lucy. She remembered now that Lucy had made plans with Brittany tonight. Apparently, those plans had brought them here.

"You thinkin what I'm thinkin?" the dark haired boy said, "Divide and conquer?"

"I'm down," Jon said, "But I get Brittany and you get the weirdo hipster chick. You owe me after the last time."

"You won't hear me complaining," The dark haired boy replied, "You see how many piercings she's got in her ears? I guarantee you she's got more down low, bro." Rachel's stomach flipped to hear these guys talking about her friend like a piece of meat, but at the same time couldn't help but wonder if Lucy did indeed have any more body piercings.

She turned to head back into the house but before she could get there, she heard Jon (or whatever his name was) say, "Chicks like that are crazy, man."

"I ain't tryin to marry her, dude…" Rachel slid the back door shut before she could hear what he was "tryin" to do to her friend. She made for the main room to find Brittany and Lucy and warn them that they were about to be assailed by drunk pigs, but before she did she turned back to the sliding glass back door and quietly as she could she flipped the lever to lock them out in the yard. Was it petty? Sure, but it made her smile a little. They could easily scale the back fence and walk back in the front door but it would be a massive inconvenience for them and perhaps by then Lucy and Brittany would be warned of their advances.

She made her way through the kitchen, having to constantly reassure people on line for the keg that she wasn't trying to cheat in line, just trying to get out to the front room. Once she made it, she saw how very full the room was. It had to be some kind of fire code violation. With the room being so crowded and Rachel being short she had trouble finding them. She pushed her way into the room hedging her way around the dancing mass in the room to the stairs up to the second floor. The second floor was strictly off limits, but Rachel wasn't going to the second floor, just part of the way up the staircase itself to gain elevation so she could try to find Lucy and Brittany.

She got to the fifth step up and turned to survey the room. There was a lot of blonde hair to pick from and she had no idea how they were dressed but she figured there weren't too many girls in the place with bright red hair (only one that Rachel knew of) so that's what she looked for. She held onto the banister as she leaned against it trying to get a closer look.

When she finally spotted them, her grip on the rail increased considerably. When the boys outside said they were dancing together, Rachel just assumed they mean that they were dancing near one another, but Brittany and Lucy had less than an inch of space between their bodies with Lucy's back pressed up to Brittany's front. They each held what looked like a mostly consumed drink in their right hands while their left hands were intertwined. Lucy and Brittany were both sporting big smiles… Rachel was not. She was busy swallowing a wave of jealousy.

**A/N: I know that is such a horribly mean place to end things, but I can't help but leave you hanging. The party was all supposed to be one chapter but then I started cutting in Rachel's POV and it started getting long so I've got to split it. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: I'm publishing two updates (on two different stories) in two days, that's some got to be some kind of record for me. I'm quite proud of me. Thanks everyone for the feedback. It always helps keep me motivated.**

**ClawingAtTheSurface: I don't know if this chapter will shed much light on your question. Read it and you tell me, I guess.**

**JPElles: Thank you, and your analysis is pretty much right on the money, as you'll begin to see in this very chapter.**

**Brittana for Life: Thank you, thank you.**

**Avarenda: The first of many, I think.**

**Garnmcgaughn: Hope I didn't leave you hanging too badly…**

**Chapter Eight**

It had been almost an hour of dancing with Brittany wordlessly, thoughtlessly, just letting her body move on instinct in concert with Brittany's before Lucy realized the room was packed with people. Other dancing couples were well up in her personal space without invitation. Her claustrophobia should have been kicking in... should have been but wasn't.

They hadn't talked much since Brittany asked her to dance. There hadn't been any need for Lucy to tell Brittany that she was an amazing dancer. Brittany knew how good she was and she also knew that Lucy thought so, likewise with Lucy and her dance skills. They danced closely, although they'd stopped short of physically touching, for the most part. As the room had slowly filled up, Brittany had occasionally put a hand on Lucy's hip to guide her, this way or that. Her touch was gentle and warm (even through two layers of clothes) and very welcome, Lucy found.

Several times over the course of the hour, one or more guys had come to try to get between them and dance with one or the other of them, but they had every one of them been rebuffed, most of them were, in fact, ignored outright.

The only ones not blown off were Brittany's friends Mike and Matt whom they'd danced with as a group, who had also brought the girls their second round of beers (in bottles opened in front of the girls). It was something imported which Matt seemed to think was important. He'd agreed with Lucy that the stuff out of the kegs tasted like piss. Lucy was pleasantly surprised to find that Matt wasn't completely full of crap. Her second beer was definitely much better in taste; although still not great, this at least was palatable. Turns out they were both on the football team too, Mike was a wide receiver, Matt a defensive back and they too were impressed that Lucy had laid out Dave Karofsky. Lucy was beginning to suspect that he didn't have many real friends...not hard to guess why.

When the song they were all dancing too ended, Matt asked Lucy to dance and she looked at Brittany who just nodded at her. Lucy figured it probably wouldn't be the worst idea for her to dance with a guy here and there to throw the scent off the gay trail, Matt seemed nice enough, and the next song was another fast song so it wasn't anything too leading. Lucy and Matt danced and talked a bit, as much as one could, considering the volume of the music. Brittany danced with Mike. It looked like both guys were talented dancers. Within the confines of a crowded dance floor it was impossible to tell how good they were but they both had a natural rhythm. She figured it was worth inviting them to Drama as well, although she decided that she would mention it some other time since she hadn't actually gotten around to bringing it up to Brittany yet.

After the second song finished, Lucy thanked Matt for the beer and for the dance before reaching out blindly for Brittany who caught her hand and pulled her back close. "Thanks guys," Brittany said, "but it's girls' night tonight. Thanks for the drinks." The guys held their bottles up in salutation and they walked back through the crowd.

"Did they think they were taking us home tonight?" Lucy asked as Brittany moved behind her to dance once again.

"Nah, they're totally not like that," Brittany said, "I mean I'm sure if we'd have been willing to neither of them would have turned us down but they weren't like expecting anything just because they gave us fancy beers."

"That's good," Lucy said, "They seemed like nice enough guys."

"So you're having fun?" Brittany asked smiling.

"Yeah," Lucy said smiling as well, "Kind of having a lot of fun actually."

"And your claustrophobia?" The moment the words left Brittany's mouth Lucy felt the hair at the back of her neck stand up, but then nothing else happened, no increased heart rate, no trouble breathing. Lucy wasn't freaking out. Instead she got the sense that someone was watching her. She scanned the crowd for anyone paying particular attention to them but didn't see anyone. She did notice that there was a pressure against her left hand. She looked down and it was only then that she realized that she and Brittany were still holding hands. That kind of freaked her out a little since they were right out in the open for anyone to see, but she still didn't immediately try to let go. "Lucy, are you okay?" Brittany asked but without waiting for an answer she pulled against their joined hands, "Come on, let's go out back for a couple of minutes."

"Yeah," Lucy agreed letting herself be led out, "That sounds good."

The crowd parted like The Red Sea for Brittany and within two minutes they were walking out the back door which Brittany said was odd that it was locked. Puck's back yard was nice, small but well maintained. It was a clear, pretty (if somewhat chilly) night out. The stars were beautiful and it was nice and (relatively) quiet out there.

Lucy took a deep breath that was lightly tainted by the smell of cigarette smoke. She supposed this was the designated smoking area and well as the escape from the crowd area. She took a long last drink of her beer and sat the empty bottle on the railing of the back porch. "Sorry I freaked you out," Brittany said when they'd been outside for a few minutes in silence.

"Wasn't you," Lucy said, "You've actually been a great help in distracting me from it." Brittany leaned her back against the porch railing that Lucy was facing. "It and, y'know," their eyes met briefly before Lucy's gaze fell to Brittany's lips, "other things."

"Other things?" Brittany repeated with a coy smile.

"Other people," Lucy said breathily, "People I can't have."

Brittany pushed her tongue between her lips wetting them before leaning in. Her disarming blue eyes still open, Brittany closed most of the distance between them but stopped just before reaching Lucy's face leaving the choice to do this or not with Lucy.

Lucy held eye contact with Brittany and smiled slightly wetting her own lips before shutting her eyes and closing the last of the space between them. She pressed her lips to Brittany's and warmth began to radiate through her body, immediately washing away the light chill of the early fall evening. Apple cinnamon lip gloss was Lucy's new favorite thing, that and the lips beneath the gloss, soft and tender but certain in their actions.

Kissing Brittany was even better than she remembered and that was saying something since she had some pretty fond memories of that night this past summer. Brittany's hands fell possessively on Lucy's hips as Lucy wrapped hers around Brittany's neck pulling herself tightly against the other girl. Brittany darted her tongue out to glide across Lucy's lips, a silent invitation to deepen the kiss which Lucy accepted without hesitation. Lucy parted her lips and Brittany's tongue slid in immediately.

This was definitely better than it had been last time (which, again, last time was pretty amazing). She wasn't sure if it was because she was a little bit drunk or if it was because they were outside on a beautiful night under a clear, starry sky. It might have been the hour of dancing and sweating with Brittany beforehand or the fact that she was pretty sure that Brittany still was not wearing a bra under her tight red strapless dress. It might be any or all of that or just the fact that this time was not her first time kissing a girl… or even her first time kissing Brittany, but she was definitely enjoying this more than anything else ever.

Brittany's hands drifted lower to cup Lucy's ass and someone sighed contentedly. Lucy didn't know for sure it was Brittany or herself and she really didn't care. Lucy let her hands slip down over the bare, slightly cool skin of Brittany's shoulders, caressing lightly with her thumbs while still pulling Brittany into herself.

Lucy was quickly forgetting herself, lost in a world of beautiful sensation of Brittany's lips and tongue and hands in wonderful places and her body pressed against Brittany's. She was suddenly yanked out of this blissful paradise by the sound of someone clearing their throat...

**X**

Jealousy.

Jealousy?

Rachel was an actress...or was going to be, whatever, the fact that she'd yet to be cast in anything didn't change the inevitable. She'd been taking acting lesson since before she could remember so she knew about emotions and how to easily identify her own. She was jealous, she knew that. She was also sitting on the staircase looking down at her skirt spread across her lap in heavy contemplation of said emotions.

She was jealous but also really, really confused. _Why_ was she jealous? What _possible_ justification did she have for that? What prompted it? Brittany and Lucy dancing? That was preposterous, who cared who they dance with? Was it the holding hands? Doubtful, she held hands with Finn all the time and if she wanted to hold Lucy's she didn't think that would be a problem either. She'd picked up on the idea that Lucy was attracted to her. She'd caught her friend looking once or twice. She didn't say anything because she didn't want to embarrass her and besides it was flattering to know that people were drawn to her… and okay, yes, she liked the attention.

That wasn't the issue Rachel determined. The issue was that they were smiling at each other. They were having fun together while Rachel was basically miserable. She was in essence a video game war widow. The jealousy stemmed from the fact that her friend was here and having fun without her and she was an only child who had never learned to share all that well. She wanted to be having fun with Lucy.

Then something else occurred to her. Lucy and Brittany were dancing close and holding hands, but Lucy was still firmly entrenched in the closet. They'd both had what Rachel could only assume to be alcoholic drinks in hand. How much had Lucy had to drink? How much had _Brittany _had to drink? Brittany was an affectionate person when she was sober. Anyone could tell you that. Was alcohol impairing their judgment and causing them to be more overtly ardent than was a wise idea for someone who wished to keep their sexuality under wraps? Admittedly, Rachel was working backwards from private knowledge but still it wouldn't be difficult to for someone with a keen eye to look at them in that state and make certain (accurate) assumptions.

This required intervention she determined. She stood back up and looked to where Brittany and Lucy had just been only minutes ago only to find them no longer there. Where did they go? She scanned the crowd to see if they'd simply moved away, perhaps from unwanted touching or more likely lingering gazes that betrayed burgeoning knowledge.

Ultimately she didn't find them anywhere on the dance floor. She knew they hadn't gone upstairs past her; she wasn't _that_ lost in her own little world, or even if she was, wouldn't Lucy have acknowledged her presence as she passed? As she saw it that left only three options: down the hall towards the restrooms and/or bedroom, out the front door to God knows where, or to the kitchen either to the basement or into the back yard.

Although it was probably their best option if Brittany and Lucy were to continue the way were going, out the front and away from the party was essentially impossible to check unless they happen to still be in the front yard. A cursory glance out the window showed that they were not. The next closest option was the hallway and as expected there was a line for the bathroom. Neither Brittany nor Lucy was in it. If they were in the first floor bedroom, Rachel wasn't about to barge to find out. In that hypothetical situation, the people on line for the restroom would have seen them go in together and the damage was likely already done. It wasn't worth the risk of what she might find, or the risk of people thinking that she was a jealous partner interrupting an illicit liaison and dragging her into the rumors.

Puck's basement was supposedly the VIP room of the party and not everyone was allowed downstairs, but Rachel was reasonably certain that Brittany was on that list so it merited searching. She pushed through the huge crowd in the front room into the kitchen. There was no sign of them there grabbing refreshments or the like so onwards into the basement she went. The plus side to the by-invitation-only access to the basement was that it was never crowded so the entire room could be quickly surveyed from the doorway immediately at the bottom of the staircase.

She found Finn exactly where she'd left him… _exactly_ where she left him; he hadn't shifted more than an inch left or right, same white knuckled grip on the video game controller. She wondered if he even realized that she'd been gone for the better part of thirty minutes. Puck didn't seem to be anywhere downstairs. Santana was nowhere to be seen either, so it was an easy guess where they were. Beyond that the basement looked completely unchanged from when she'd left: no Brittany and definitely no Lucy.

As she'd made her way back upstairs, Rachel momentarily thought she should abandon the search for them. They'd clearly noticed what they were doing and why it might not be such a great idea to keep doing it where it might be seen. They'd obviously made themselves scarce enough that Rachel was having trouble finding them. What chance did anyone else have of stumbling upon them by accident when someone looking for them this hard couldn't find them?

Still she was almost done looking. There was only one last place to check and she honestly expected to look in the back yard and either find it likewise empty or to find the girls flopped out on the grass looking up at the stars, laughing and having a good time.

That wasn't what she found… not at all.

What she found was Brittany and Lucy making their best effort to swallow each other's faces. Rachel was suddenly glad that she hadn't given up her search since the two were plainly lost in their hardcore make out session ten feet from the nearest partygoer. In fairness, a casual observer might not be able to pick up from this particular vantage point that it was, in fact, Lucy that Brittany was making out with but their dead-to-the-world entrancement with one another would easily afford anyone looking on the chance at closer examination.

She needed to shock them out of their stupor Rachel determined. She stood inside the back door standing wide open, as they'd presumably left it, and in an extremely loud and exaggerated manner cleared her throat. She watched through tinted glass as Lucy suddenly shot off of Brittany like a dart and smiled.

Wait! Smiling? Why was Rachel smiling at scaring her friend into realizing the inopportune location of her lip locking? Damn it this whole thing was getting far too complicated. Rachel decided it was for the best to just remove herself from the whole situation. If Brittany and Lucy got caught it was their own fault. Rachel quickly hauled herself off back downstairs and back to the couch next to Finn who was apparently blissfully unaware of… well, more or less everything that wasn't his video game.

**X**

"Holy shit that was really stupid of me," Lucy said to herself. She was leaned back against the rail of the porch, a hand pressed to her chest to feel her racing heartbeat. After she'd literally jumped away from Brittany, she'd quickly scanned the area for anyone watching them and found no one. She wasn't exactly re-assured by that, but whoever it was, whether they saw them or not, was gone now and there was little she could do about it.

"I'm sorry," Brittany said in a little sad voice, "I thought you… I mean, I didn't force…"

"No, honey," Lucy interrupted, quickly grabbing one of Brittany's hands with both of hers, "You didn't force me to do anything. I want to do that. I've wanted to all night. I just shouldn't have done it out here. I'm… I'm still not ready for people to know about me, about this." Her heartbeat was starting to slow down so she took a deep breath and this time she couldn't even smell the cigarette smoke, all she could smell was Brittany. "Is there somewhere private we can go?"

"So you want to keep going, then?" Brittany asked. Lucy was nodding her head vigorously before she even finished asking the question. "Puck's mom's room is upstairs to the left at the end of the hall," Brittany said, "No one supposed to go up there so we'll be all alone."

"Sounds good," Lucy smiled.

"Kay," Brittany smiled, "You go first and I'll wait like a couple of minutes so we're not going up together."

"Smart thinking," Lucy said.

"No, just experienced," Brittany said, "You're not the first in the closet girl I've made out with."

Lucy said nothing else, but just slipped back into the house as casually as she could. She walked through the kitchen without trying to look too eager and yet not wasting any time either. She was almost clear and back into the front room when none other than Dave Karofsky rounded the corner with an empty cup in his hand. "Well, look who it is, Laila Ali," he said as his free hand tightened into a fist.

Lucy sized him up and his posture said he'd been drinking, probably a lot, and that he was really angry, not hard to guess at whom. She still had no clue if he was the type of person to hit a girl and she wasn't terribly keen to find out when her mind was decidedly elsewhere, so she tried to ignore him like so many other guys she'd blown off today and walk out of the room. He wasn't having that, however, and threw up an arm in front of her to block her exit. "Where you going? You think I'm just some punk you can ignore? I'm fucking Dave Karofsky, bitch."

"What do you want, Dave?" Lucy asked, "Was it not embarrassing enough being beaten up by a girl and then _telling_ everyone that you got beaten up by a girl. Are you ready for the rematch? Because I have to warn you Laila Ali, she was undefeated her whole career."

"Are you fucking kidding me? I'd kill you in a fair fight," he said. His words were definitely slurred that time. He was drunk, and not just a little bit like Lucy might have been. This was not a great situation to be in right now.

"Then why would I fight fair?"

He stared at her hard, nostrils flaring, jaw clenched. He was psyching himself up to throw a blow she could tell. Lucy's face remained unchanged but inside she was planning out what she was going to do. Everything about him said he was right handed, so that was where he would swing from. His feet were too far apart and weren't planted, so maybe only a third of his weight would be behind that, 60-70 pounds of force, most likely a wild haymaker. She would block it then kick him in the balls and run.

Suddenly, her thoughts were disrupted by him exhaling sharply through his nose. "You're lucky that I never hit girls," he said, "but enjoy the rest of your school year." He immediately brushed past her towards the kegs. Lucy didn't wait around for him to change his mind.

She shoved through the front room to the staircase and up the stairs. Following Brittany's instructions, she went to the door at the end of the hall on the left. The door was locked when she tried it. She felt along the frame above the door for a key of some sort. What she found was a bobby pin. Lucy looked at the door knob and noticed that it didn't have an actual keyhole but a small circular opening, slightly larger than a bobby pin. She pushed the pin in and heard a click.

The interior of the room was ugly as hell and about as unsexy as could be but that didn't matter to her. Brittany was all the sexy she would need for the evening. She kept the lights off and let the faint light from outside be all the illumination in the room. She didn't know what to do with herself, where to be when Brittany came in. First she sat on the edge of the queen sized bed, then she moved to sit against the headboard, then she climbed off the bed entirely and stood in between the bed and the closet, then she moved to stand at the foot of the bed. She had just pushed herself up onto the foot of the bed with her legs tucked beneath her when there was a soft knock at the door. "Lu," Brittany said.

"Come in," Lucy said softly.

A twist of the knob later and Brittany was standing before her with lit candles in each hand the light from which in combination with Brittany's red dress made her appear to be glowing. Brittany closed the door and quickly settled the candles down, one on the dresser beside the door, the other on the bedside table. Lucy maneuvered around to meet her on that side of the bed. "Now where were we?" Brittany asked with a smile before leaning in to place a soft kiss on Lucy's neck.

Lucy took in a ragged breath before replying, "Well, I was about to tell you how incredibly beautiful I think you look tonight, but then I remembered that you always look that beautiful so I thought I'd come up with a better compliment, but then you kissed my neck and now I'm having trouble thinking of anything beside the feel of your lips against my skin."

"That's so hot," Brittany sighed into Lucy's ear. Excited tingles ran all through Lucy's body and made her knees weak. She lay back on the bed beckoning Brittany to follow her. Brittany placed her hands on the mattress beside Lucy's hips and crawled slowly, seductively up Lucy's body until they were face-to-face. "I think you're really beautiful too, Lucy," she said before pressing their lips together.

When they broke, Lucy said, "Thanks, but you don't have to say that. I know I'm not."

"You are so," Brittany said rearing up leaving about a foot of space between them.

"I'm not," Lucy said, "I've got this weird hair and a big nose. My eyes are…"

"I like your hair _and_ your nose and I _love_ your eyes," Brittany countered pushing herself off top of Lucy to lie on her side next to her instead, "They were the very first thing I noticed about you. I remember it like it was yesterday. You came into Ms Tam's hip hop class and you were wearing black leggings and yellow workout top with a big gray sweater over top of it because you said you still had ten pounds you wanted to lose before anyone saw you in anything form fitting. But you didn't know how much we sweated in hip hop dance and you wound up having to take off the sweater. I thought you looked great then. Tonight you look amazing."

"If I look amazing," Lucy said, "it's because of you and your clothes."

Brittany bit her lip and smiled. "I gotta tell you a secret. They're not _my_ clothes."

Lucy pushed herself up on her elbows and looked down at Brittany. "Whose are they?"

"They're… yours." Lucy looked confused at this confession, so Brittany propped herself up on one elbow to match Lucy's gaze. "I bought them for you," she said, "I'm sorry if that was like assuming too much about you or whatever, but I just know how McKinley can be to people who don't look and act a certain way. I thought your first week might be kind of brutal and I wanted to do something to make it a little better." She stayed the silent for a minute while Lucy just looked at her, "I didn't know it would lead to this, but I can't say that I'm upset that it has."

"You're amazing," Lucy said leaning hard into Brittany kissing her deeply and toppling her over backwards onto the bed Lucy crashing down atop her only managing to catch herself at the very last second. She kissed Brittany once more before moving to her jaw and neck.

Brittany sighed and wrapped her hands around Lucy's back pulling Lucy down to press their bodies together again. "So you like the dress?" Lucy nodded against her neck. "Good, good, I saw it in the store and thought it was something you'd really like." She hummed as Lucy peppered her exposed collarbones with kisses. "Wait, something's not working quite right here." Lucy looked up very suddenly with a worried look on her face clearly concerned she'd done something wrong but before she could speak Brittany grabbed a solid hold on Lucy's hips and rolled them over putting herself back on top. "Sorry, Lu, I'm not a bottom," Brittany said grinning and then dipped her head down pressing her tongue to Lucy's neck just above her shoulder and slid it up the length of her neck.

Lucy's whole body shivered as electricity coursed though it and a familiar ache between her legs started building anew. She fisted one hand in Brittany's hair and pulled her down against her own lips in a searing kiss. When she broke she lifted her head to the side of Brittany's and quickly licked the shell of her ear before whispering, "You'll bottom if I tell you to bottom, Blondie." She quickly let her head fall back to the pillow with a cocky smirk stretched across her face which made Brittany smile as well. Lucy may not know much about sex but she knew about control.

"Feisty red head, huh?" Brittany said as she grinded her hips against Lucy's eliciting a pleasure soaked groan, "I like it. It'll make my topping you all the sweeter." She crashed their lips together once more and no more words were spoken as their tongues quickly became otherwise occupied. Lips mashed hard together as tongues snaked around one another and hands roamed over what was quickly becoming very warm skin. Lucy only realized that her dress was bunched up above her waist when she felt Brittany's hands settle delicately on her stomach. Lucy's hands trembled as they ran down Brittany's back then back up her sides stopping hesitantly just below Brittany's small but perky breasts. Brittany finally broke of the kiss to say just above a whisper, "You can touch me if you want, Lu. No pressure if you don't wanna or aren't ready but if you want to, I want you to."

"I want to," Lucy said softly, "I just…"

"What?" Brittany asked when Lucy trailed off into silence, "Talk to me."

"I feel like I'm using you," Lucy said, "I can't have…" It seemed like the wrong time to mention another girl's name so she didn't. "So I'm here with you instead, and I don't want to take advantage…"

"You're not," Brittany replied purposefully not putting space between them, keeping the built up energy between them. "You're not the only one here who needs to move on from someone, okay? You like me, right? Like me for me? We have fun together and I make you laugh."

"Yeah," Lucy breathed.

"And I know you're attracted to me, I've seen you look. You aren't subtle at all. And I don't look like her at all so you aren't with me thinking about her, right?"

"N-no, I'm here with you."

"And I'm with you," Brittany brought a hand up from Lucy's stomach, hooked her thumb in the top of her dress, pulled it down, and then covered Lucy's hand with hers moving it up to cup Brittany's breast and squeezed, "so let's make each other feel good and just enjoy the night."

Brittany's hand fell away but Lucy's remained, squeezing softly, caressing lightly, her thumb flicking over Brittany's nipple. Momentarily she brought her other hand up to match and just let her instincts guide her. Brittany brought both of her hands up to plant them on the bed to hold her weight up. Lucy stared at Brittany's breasts. Aside from her own they were the first she'd ever seen in person and the blurry, water-obscured picture from earlier didn't do them justice, firm and round and both topped with a pick nipple that stood out a quarter of an inch. Lucy wet her lips and started, "Can I…?"

"You can do whatever you want," Brittany said with needy urgency.

"Whatever I want, huh?" Lucy smirked before teasing one nipple with the tip of her tongue. Brittany nodded her head vigorously. "Told you you'd bottom for me," Lucy said taking Brittany's right breast in her mouth, licking and sucking for all she was worth. Brittany cradled Lucy's head against her as she sucked in a deep breath and moaned in exhale.

Just as she did, the bedroom door swung open. Standing the doorway was Rachel with a clearly very intoxicated girl beside her, one arm slung over Rachel's shoulders. "Come on honey, let's get you to bed and…" Rachel looked up to survey the scene in front of her, "Oh my God! I… sor… um… Lucy?"

**A/N: Yes, I know. I suck with the cliffhangers and stuff right? Can't help it.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"**

**A/N: The awaited third (and yes, final) chapter of the party. There may be a bit of a gap between this and the next chapter as there's another story (Keeping the Creed) I really want to finish up. I've left people hanging enough as is. Hope everyone enjoys.**

**BonesFABERRY: Not just to forget. They actually like each other and they feel like they need to move on from current situations. Hopefully I made that more clear this chapter.**

**ClawingAtTheSurface: Neither is Rachel. And neither of those names work, that's why I stick with Fierce.**

**GleekyGabbers: Then Drunk!Santana you shall have.**

**Chapter Nine**

Apparently the only thing that had changed in the half hour that Rachel had been gone was they'd traded out Call of Duty for something called Midnight Club, a racing game, and Rachel observed that just as one shouldn't drink and drive, apparently you also shouldn't drink and play racing games because Finn, Azimio Adams, Matthew Brookings, and one other football player who's name she either didn't know or didn't remember spent the entire length of every race running into other cars and walls, driving off bridges. They were all in a dead heat for last place.

Her attempt to focus on Finn and the video games before her and not on Lucy and Brittany and whatever they may be up to proved about as fruitless as she honestly knew that it would, her jealousy continued to baffle her. It made no sense. She didn't like Lucy any more than a friend, best friend maybe but that was it. She'd had no issues with Lucy becoming friends with Tina, so what was it with Lucy having a girlfriend? If that's what she and Brittany were… or may become, then why should she care? Why was she happy when she'd disrupted their kissing?

Honestly, the only thing Rachel could come up with was that Brittany was popular where she was not, that tempered with the fact that Lucy and Brittany had been friends longer. It was possible that she was worried that Lucy wouldn't need to be her friend anymore if she were dating a popular girl. Logically she knew that she was just being insecure and stupid, that she and Lucy were friends but that logic was competing against ten years of isolation and it wasn't winning that fight at all.

She suddenly felt compelled to apologize to Lucy for it but she wasn't sure she knew how. She was certain that her reasoning...or rather her irrational thought pattern, since it clearly had nothing to do with reason...either way she wasn't sure that Lucy wouldn't get it, wouldn't understand what Rachel was even apologizing for.

She just didn't like keeping secrets, especially from Lucy who'd trusted her with a huge secret right off the bat. On the other hand, telling Lucy would really only be for Rachel's own benefit, so that she'd feel better.

"Brittanyyyyyyyy!" came a drunken call. Santana Lopez came stumbling into the room disrupting Rachel's contemplation. "Britt!" Rachel was used to seeing her drunk at these things but this was beyond anything she'd seen. She was wobbling as she walked, so much so that her side-to-side steps outnumbered her forward ones by almost 2-to-1, her hair was disheveled but not like it usually was when she'd been off with Puck or whomever else, and she looked like she was on verge of tears. That last one was the truly disconcerting part to Rachel since the only emotions she usually ever saw out of Santana was angry and horny. Was horny an emotion? Beside the point. Santana Lopez was about to start crying, or maybe she already was. "Briiiitt!"

"Brittany's not down here," Rachel said finally when she tired of listening to the drunken wailings.

"Whershe?" Santana said harshly, before shifting into weepy mode again, "Whatchu do doer?"

Rachel supposed that Santana was trying to come off as intimidating but it was really, really not working... especially with the tears. "I didn't do anything to her, Santana, relax."

"Mmmont tell me whatado!" Santana yelled, "YOU DON'T RUN MY LIFE, BISSH!

"I know that all too well, Santana," Rachel replied finally standing and walking over to Santana to perhaps hopefully get Santana to stop yelling, "but listen, Brittany's not down here. I didn't do anything to her, but I have seen her tonight. I believe she and Lucy Fabray came together."

"Hamany times?" Santana slurred again on the verge of crying.

"I don't understand the question," Rachel said softly.

"Snot hard," Santana said, "Hamany timesid Britty come wi Lucy the gay?"

"Lucy _Fabray_!" Rachel hissed at her quickly.

"Swhat I sayed. Hamany times?"

"Although I don't keep their schedules and thus couldn't say for sure, I think this is the only party they've come to together," Rachel said.

"AH! Snothin," Santana said louder than was necessary, "me and Britty come together way morenat."

"So then it's nothing to worry about then, right?" Rachel said. "You're not losing your best friend, nor am I. So why don't we go find you some water and perhaps Noah can find you somewhere to sleep safely."

"Fuckin stoopass Noah," Santana slurred as Rachel steered them back towards the stairs. She dreaded the prospect of guiding the massively uncoordinated drunk on her arm up the staircase. She was strategizing for how to maneuver the stairs and not coming up with much, but she was apparently concerned for nothing. As it turned out that while her motor skills and coordination were severely impaired, Santana's spatial awareness was fine. There was perhaps a certain amount of muscle memory involved as well. How often had Santana drunkenly negotiated these stairs? Apparently as long as she took her time and focused on what she was doing (which took some encouragement from Rachel) she could climb well enough.

"Do you know where Noah is, Santana?" Rachel asked after they'd very, very slowly made the trip up to the first floor. Santana appeared to be shaking her head no. Rachel wasn't entirely certain it was deliberate but either way she wasn't speaking. The kitchen was deserted and the front room was still packed with bodies and overpowered by music. The back porch was deserted which she couldn't help thinking was a good thing. "Let's check out the drunk tank, shall we?"

The drunk tank was the code name for the garage where they were supposed to take people who'd had enough to drink and needed a place to sit and chill while they sobered up a bit or waited on a ride to take them home. This was done in the garage so that when someone invariably vomited, it wasn't on the carpet. Puck could simply turn on the water hose and it was gone in a minute. There was an old couch and love seat and plethora of folding chairs. Rachel opened the door into the garage and almost immediately Puck said, "Oh, Berry, thank God. This chick keeps going on and on about you. Did she ride with you?"

Rachel helped guide Santana down the two steps into the garage and looked at the girl slumped on the couch in front of where Puck was standing. She was smiling and saying something that Rachel couldn't make out at a distance. She had dark hair, tan skin, a pretty smile, and very distinctive beauty mark on her nose. "I have no idea who she is," Rachel said, "I've never seen her before." She settled Santana into an open chair.

"Well, she's wasted," Puck said, "I'm tryin to get her to tell me her name or who she came with or something so I can her ass home safe, but every time I ask her name she says Rachel Barbra Berry and I somehow doubt that there are two of you."

Rachel sighed. Life was fundamentally unfair, she determined. Lucy was off having a good time with Brittany and Rachel was in the process of taking care of a pair of drunk girls, one of whom she didn't know, the other hated her. Rachel nodded her head at Santana and said, "Trade you drunk girls?" Puck pointed a thumb over his shoulder and moved towards her. Rachel crossed with him and settled down on the couch next to the mystery girl. "Can you…?" Rachel finally noticed that she had earbuds in. She hadn't been talking but lip synching to whatever she was listening to. Rachel smiled and placed a gentle hand on the other girl's knee to get her attention.

She looked up, opened her eyes, and smiled at Rachel. Only a brief moment later her eyes bugged out and her smile dropped as her mouth fell open. "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" she said smiling again, "You're Rachel Berry!"

There were several people shushing her immediately. Rachel gently tugged on the wire connecting her earbuds to her iPod. "I am," Rachel said smiling a little. It wasn't exactly an everyday occurrence that someone was happy about the fact they recognized her. "Do I know you?"

"I saw you sing at the… well you can't see singing, but I heard you sing and saw you too at the holly-holly-day event last year," she said, "You were _soooo_ amazing. I completely love you." Although still slurred she was a considerably more intelligible drunk than was Santana, Rachel gave her that much.

"Thank you so much," Rachel replied, "Although Holly Holiday is person, not an event. I suppose you mean the Christmas pageant that I sang at last year, and I thank you both for the praise for trying to be inclusive of my Jewish faith which was more than the City of Lima could do… not that I mind singing Christmas Carols. Many of them are quite beautiful songs even if you don't believe the content of the message."

"That was… _a lot_ of words," she said her face displaying her confusion.

"I suppose it was," Rachel said, "Let me try again, thank you for being a fan."

"Oh," she smiles again, "Welcome."

"What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Avery," she said, "Avery Gabrielle Moretti."

"That's a very pretty name," Rachel said, "Who did you come here with tonight?"

Avery's head rolled back into the couch cushions, "Hitting on me?"

"Am I-? No, I'm not hitting on you," Rachel said not sure whether to be amused or hurt that Avery would think that she would do such a thing to someone so intoxicated, but then she figured that most drunk people didn't really realize how drunk they actually were, "I was going to try to go find your ride and let them know that you need to go home. So who did you come with?"

"Mary…"

"Mary who?"

"Death."

"Mary _Death_?" Rachel pondered those names for a moment before a thought struck her. "Meredith?" Avery nodded slowly, "Meredith who, sweetie?"

"Wheat…" she mumbled before her eyes fell shut.

"Whitaker?" Puck said suddenly standing above them again. "She said she came with a girl named Meredith?"

"Yes," Rachel said, "Do you know her?

"If it's Meredith Whitaker, then I do only because I just put her in a cab fifteen minutes ago," he said, "She didn't say anything about this chick though."

"What do we do?" Rachel asked.

"Hey! Drunky!" Puck shouted at her shaking her.

"Noah, stop that," Rachel admonished. She turned back to Avery, took her hand, and said, "Avery, honey, it's Rachel. Can you wake up for me, please?" Avery hummed a little and Rachel wasn't sure if that was an answer or just a random noise. "Can you tell me where you live so that we can get you home safely?" Avery mumbled something incoherent and shifted onto her side. She was fast asleep.

"Check her pockets for an ID or something," Puck said.

"You want me to stick my hands into her pants?" Rachel replied.

"Would you rather _I _did it?"

"I take your point," Rachel said. She bit her lip and felt along her thighs over the front pockets of her jeans finding nothing… well nothing but the strong muscles beneath anyway. "Nothing," she said, "Can you… gently, stand her up so I can check her rear pockets."

Puck reached down to take Avery's hands and began to slowly pull her up. "I will always help a girl check out another girl's rear."

"God, Noah," Rachel sighed, "Oh we have a phone." She reached in delicately to extract the device. After Puck's comment, every second of contact between Rachel's fingers and Avery's butt just felt like she was committing some horrible act of groping when all she was trying to do was help by figuring out where home was. Rachel moved from behind her, phone in hand, so Puck settled her down on the couch once more. Rachel looked at the touchscreen device and pushed the power button to awaken it. "Password protected."

"Let me see it. I can…"

"I'm not letting you break into her phone," Rachel said. She stood back up beside Puck looking down at Avery, "Is there somewhere we can take her so she can sleep long enough for her to sober up a bit and tell us her address?"

"What's wrong with right there?" Puck said.

"Firstly, anyone could wander in here and do God knows what to her," Rachel said, "and secondly, sleeping sitting up on a couch is terrible for your posture and doesn't allow for the good, restful sleep she needs so that she can begin to recover." He stood staring at her. "Look, I'll just call my dads and take her to my house. She can…"

"Take her upstairs," Puck said cutting her off abruptly, "My Mom's room will be empty. The door locks. I swear on my honor as a Jew that she'll be safe in there."

"While I don't doubt your honor, Noah," Rachel said, "I know that she'll be safe because I'll be insuring that she is by staying with her until we can figure out how to get her home."

Puck just shrugged and said, "What about your boyfriend?"

"He's gotten along fine without me so far tonight," Rachel said with more than a hint of bitterness in her voice, "I'm sure he'll do just fine without me for the remainder of the evening. Can you help me get her up again?" Puck and Rachel, slowly and gently as they could, hoisted Avery back to her feet and draped one arm over Rachel's shoulders. "Thank you, Noah. I'm glad to know that there's still a decent guy underneath that hard exterior."

He ran his hand over his Mohawk. "Just don't tell anyone," he said before walking off to go tend to Santana again.

Rachel began her task of walking and guiding an unconscious drunk up to the bedroom. They made it into the house and past the crowd in the front room with far less hassle than she had expected. Ultimately, it was the stairs that did them in. Rachel's footing slipped on the third stair sending them crashing to the ground. This seemed to stir Avery slightly as her eyes cracked open partly, her upper eyelids still very heavy. "Avery, we're going to lie down," Rachel said picking first herself and then Avery back up, "Can you move your feet for me?"

"Asking me to dance?" she said.

"Not right now," Rachel said smiling, "Right now we need to go have a bit of a nap unless you can tell me where you live right now."

Avery smiled, "Wanna meet my mom?"

"I'd be delighted to meet your mother, sweetheart," Rachel said, "If you could just tell me your address. Right now I don't know where you live.

Avery laid her head on Rachel's shoulder and said, "Love this dream."

"No help, huh?" Rachel said, "Let's try these stairs again, I guess."

**X**

"Oh my God! I… sor… um… Lucy?" Rachel's head was swimming. She'd never understood that expression until just now, but now she did and it was. She'd just walked in on Lucy and Brittany in an extremely intimate moment. She felt surprised. She felt shocked. She felt embarrassed, both for herself and for Brittany who was currently topless. She felt confused, although she couldn't quite pinpoint by what. She felt happy in much the same way she had been when she had interrupted their public makeout session earlier. She felt angry at both Lucy and Brittany but again she wasn't sure why; neither of them had done anything wrong.

"Don't you know how to knock," Lucy barked at Rachel yanking her out of her own head.

"Of course, I know how to knock," Rachel replied in a matching tone to Lucy's, "but I don't generally bother with doors to rooms that are supposed to be vacant. Don't you know how to lock a door?"

"Both of you shut up," Brittany interrupted pulling her dress back up to cover herself. "Is she okay?"

Brittany nodded in Avery's direction and suddenly Rachel remember why she'd come up here in the first place, the drunk girl on her arm that needed to sleep it off. "She's okay, I think," Rachel said, "Just had far too much to drink and needs to rest until she can tell us how to get her home. Do you know her, Brittany?"

"Only sort of," she answered as she moved to help Rachel lay her on the bed, "She's a freshman Cheerio. Her last name is Moretti, I think."

"Avery," Rachel said, "Do you maybe have her home phone number? Like a Cheerios contact list, maybe?"

"Santana might," Brittany said, "I'll go see."

"I saw her just a few minutes ago," Rachel said, "She was in the garage with Noah. She was very intoxicated as well."

"I'm just gonna go get her phone," Brittany said, "I know where she keeps it when she's at a party. I'm gonna get some water for her too. You guys want?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Rachel said. Lucy nodded but didn't say anything.

When she was gone Rachel and Lucy exchanged tense looks. Rachel looked away and settled down onto the bed next to Avery. Lucy remained standing trying desperately to think of something to say to Rachel to break the tension but nothing was coming to her. She felt like she'd just been caught cheating and couldn't shake that thought. It was completely ridiculous and yet she couldn't let the thought go.

"How are Brittany's breasts?" Rachel asked.

Lucy was sure she'd gone insane because there was no way Rachel just asked what she just asked, "What?"

"I couldn't really see from the door," Rachel said, "so how were they, were they nice?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"I was trying to break the tension," Rachel said, "You're standing there all closed off and looking guilty, which you shouldn't, so I thought I'd say something outrageous to lighten the mood." Lucy stood there looking at her skeptically. Rachel shrugged at her. "It works in the movies."

Lucy scoffed and started slowly shaking her head, smiling. She realized that despite how dumb it was Rachel's plan had actually worked. She walked over to sit on the bed as well on the opposite side of Avery from Rachel. "You don't actually want the answer to that question, right?"

"Not unless you're just dying to share," Rachel said.

"How about we talk about how you came to have custody of a drunk girl that you don't even know?"

"I was downstairs with Finn when Santana came in shouting for Brittany and I helped her find her way to Noah who was in the garage tending to Avery whom I hadn't met until tonight. As it turns out she's a fan of my singing," Rachel finally paused to take a breath, "Why I felt that made me responsible for her well being, I'm not sure, but she came here with a friend who Noah put into a cab already. I just didn't want her to be alone. Anything could have happened to her."

"It's nice of you," Lucy said softly.

"No need to sound so sad," Rachel said, "I'd do the same for you, more even. I mean…"

"I wasn't going to sleep with her," Lucy said abruptly.

Rachel opened and closed her mouth without speaking a couple of times before settling on a train of thought. "That is really not my business," she said reminding herself of that as well.

"It's just that we were dancing and she smells really nice and then we were kissing and that was better and… and I just wanted to explore a little bit and she was the one who started taking clothes off and…"

Rachel reached across the girl between them to cover one of Lucy's hands with her own. Lucy stopped talking and looked at her. "Lucy, it's really none of my business. If you want to brag to me about how hot your new girlfriend is, I'm available for that. That's a best friend's job, after all, but you don't have to justify yourself to me. If you've found someone that makes you happy then I'm happy for you and you should progress at whatever pace you're comfortable."

"Thanks," Lucy said.

The door pushed open again and Rachel and Lucy yanked their hands back to their sides of the bed. Brittany walked in with four bottles of water in her hands. "I got her home number from Santana's phone, but it just rings and rings, no answering machine, no voicemail." She handed out water bottles. "This probably isn't the best place for Avery to sleep. It's still really loud. Rachel, did you drive here?"

"Finn brought me," she said.

"Have you had anything to drink?" Brittany asked.

"No alcohol," Rachel said.

"Okay," Brittany said, "well, me and Lucy have had a couple, so we probably shouldn't be driving, but Lucy's car is at my house. It's just a couple of block away. You and her could go get it and we could all go crash at my dad's. There's plenty of room for us there and he won't ask too many questions."

"And you'll watch out for Avery while we're gone?"

"Coach would kill me if I let anything happen to one of her Cheerios," Brittany said, "I'd be pretty upset at myself too."

Rachel nodded and said, "We'll be back soon." She and Lucy headed out of the room and down the stairs. The front room was still packed almost shoulder to shoulder. "Despite how inconsiderate he's been of me today, I should go tell Finn that I'm leaving." Lucy nodded in understanding. "Would you mind horribly if I asked you to wait up here? It's just that if I tell him that I'm leaving, he'll just say bye and we'll go. If I say it while you're standing there, he'll suddenly decide he wants me around and it will be this big fight that I'd rather avoid." Lucy said nothing but looked at her with an arched eyebrow. "Yes, I know, it's quite ridiculous how jealous he is of the time we spend together. He's just so used to how things used to be, when he was the only one in my life."

"Go ahead," Lucy told her, "I'll be out front."

**X**

Fifteen minutes later Rachel finally cleared the front door. "Sorry," Rachel said, "Sorry, sorry. He wanted me sit and talk, said he had hardly seen me all night as though that were somehow my fault. I'm ready to go now."

Lucy was distracted, smiling at her phone rapidly tapping away at the keys. "It's okay," Lucy said.

"Are you texting your girlfriend? Didn't you just leave her?" Rachel teased.

"She's not my girlfriend," Lucy said as they started walking towards Brittany's house, "Not yet anyway. We haven't even been on a date yet. Tonight was just supposed to be hanging out. The rest of it just sort of happened."

"So are you going to ask her?" Rachel questioned.

"I don't know. I want to," Lucy said, "But I'm really nervous about it."

"Are you worried that she might say no?" Rachel asked, "Because I would point out that not half an hour ago you had your mouth on her bear breast."

"Strangely enough, I haven't forgotten that," Lucy said, "And it's not her saying no that I'm worried about. I'm not _worried_ about anything really, just anxious. I've never asked anyone out before."

"Unfortunately I have no advice to offer on that subject. I've never asked anyone out before either," Rachel said, "However, when you marshal up your courage and ask I do have some suggestions about what to do and where to go."

"Do you..." Lucy started, stopped, and shook her head, "Never mind."

"Tell me," Rachel insisted.

Lucy took a deep breath and sighed, "I'm... not ready to..."

"Have sex?" Rachel filled in, "I doubt Brittany would ever push you to do more that you're ready for. Just explain things to her. Say, Brittany while you are adventurous and open sexually, and I respect that, I am more reserved and need to wait until I feel comfortable."

"I was going to say come out," Lucy said.

Rachel laughed at herself as they crossed the street to the next block. "Is she not understanding of that? Is that why you were kissing her on the back porch?"

"On the... how did... did you _see_ us? Did anybody _else_?"

"I did and I was the one who interrupted you. I didn't see or hear about anyone else that might have witnessed," Rachel answered, "The lack of anyone standing around leering would suggest you were in the clear."

"Jesus, Rachel, you scared the hell out me," Lucy said, "Why didn't you say something? Why did you just disappear?"

"I, um, I felt stupid interrupting," Rachel said, "For all I knew you guys didn't care who saw and my feelings were all muddled, so like I said I felt dumb so I just took off. I'm sorry I scared you."

"It's okay," Lucy said, "What do you mean your emotions were muddled?"

"I'd seen the two of you dancing, smiling, and having fun and I felt jealous. I'm pretty sure that it was just the self-centered only child in me that didn't like being left out. Unlike _someone_ I could mention, I don't actually think I have any right to be the only person in your life. It was just a stupid gut reaction that I didn't properly check and again I'm sorry."

Lucy still didn't see what Rachel got out of that relationship but she didn't want to start another fight with her on the subject, especially right now so she just let it go. "It's fine, Rachel. What were we talking about before this?"

"You're concerned that Brittany's going want you to come out," Rachel said.

"Right," Lucy said, "I mean, that's not it exactly. She'd never pressure me to come out before my time, but I'm worried that she'll get tired of hiding us, you know. She's a very live out loud type of person."

"She is definitely that," Rachel agreed, "I don't know her very well so I can't honestly say that I know for certain that she won't. However, speaking as a _fellow_ live out loud type of person, it is nice to sometimes have something just to yourself, hence my knee jerk reaction to you being happy without me."

"Thanks, Rach."

"You're very welcome," Rachel said, "That's what friends are for, is it not?"

"Yes, it is," Lucy agreed. She caught Rachel by the hand and led her around the corner onto the street that would lead them to Brittany's house, "And as a friend, without starting another fight, can I just say don't sacrifice everything for Finn, okay? Quarterback of the football team or not, he has to contribute to your relationship too or else you deserve better."

"But can I actually do better is the question."

"Yes, you can," Lucy said, "I met a couple of Britt's guy friends tonight that seemed like decent people, Matt something and Mike something, both on the football team. They seemed nice, apparently single, both talented dancers."

Rachel really didn't want to go there right now while she was mad at Finn lest she do something impulsive and stupid so she tried to artfully dodge the question. "Britt, huh? You guys already have nicknames for one another?" Lucy smiled in response, "Lucy Q, I believe you are smitten."

"I wouldn't deny that allegation," Lucy said.

Rachel smiled back at her. When she looked back at where she was going she could see Lucy's car parked along the street in the distance. "I see it," Rachel said enthusiastically, pointing, "To the hipster mobile!"


End file.
